One War Ends And Another Begins
by ARavingLooony1992
Summary: After eliminating the last remaining member's of the Thalmor, the Dragonborn discovers the Thalmor's plans to increase their numbers via manipulating a race of elves known as the Dalish in a mysterious foreign land known as Thedas. With her hatred for the Thalmor, Fridya decides she must go see if she can put an end to these potential Thalmor allies.
1. Chapter 1

The time had finally come.

With a smile the twenty-five winter's old Nordic woman Fridya Scar-Pommel awoke from her slumber in her bed in her home of Hjerim in Windhelm. The woman in question being the Nordic hero of legend Dragonborn.

After all her adventures across Skyrim and beyond, now came the final threat to her homeland, the Thalmor. Like many of her kinsmen their prescence in Skyrim made her blood boil with rage. The Thalmor declared the worship of her kinsmen's patron god, Talos a crime and hauled off for torture or killed anyone the knife-eared scumbag's suspected worshippers. The Empire had turned a blind eye to them but not Fridya or the Stormcloaks. Fridya had lost track of the amount of Thalmor blood she had spilled since arriving in Skyrim. If she were to guess it would be at least one hundred Thalmor lay dead by her hand. She wore her amulet of Talos around her neck proudly, not even taking it off to go to sleep. She had been assaulted by the Thalmor quite a few times when they saw her amulet around her neck. She slew whatever Thalmor scumbag she came across however one of her two most highly sought after Thalmor target's Ondolemar had fled Markarth the moment word had gotten out the Stormcloaks won the civil war. Where he fled to like the coward he and the rest of his kind were she didn't know which was infuriating. The other target; Elenwen, Fridya knew was no doubt still located in the Thalmor Embassy. The knife-eared bitch thought she was safe hiding in her little hidey-hole but not for long.

After stretching her arm's and leg's Fridya moved over to the stand on the nearby wall which had her dragonbone knight armour held up upon it. Heavy plates made of hardened dragonbone, a leather belt wrapped around the waist of the armour that separated it from the dragonbone chausses that reached to just above the knee with the rest of her leg being covered with a heavy pair of dragonbone boot's along with a pair of hardened dragonbone gauntlet's and finally a cloak made of snowy bear pelt's

Finally there were her weapon's, the Ice Blade of the Monarch greatsword of which the damn hassle she went through to get the uniquely enchanted weapon, she'd almost frozen to death after having to swim down to the bottom of the Sea of Ghosts up north to finally claim it. While the tasks to retrieving the weapon were highly dangerous but it was definately worth it to gain access to the unique enchanted greatsword, the ability to freeze an opponent solid whilst dealing frost damage along with the ability to summon a towering frost atronach much larger and more powerful than the regular ones certainly helped a great deal and finally her dual dragonbone war axe's which had taken no small amount of time to make.

After she had finished doing her morning stretches, Fridya began arming herself and equipping herself in the dragonbone knight armor that she had crafted herself which had been heavily tempered to provide as much protection as it could. The whole suit of dragonbone armor had taken at least a good few week's to create. Many of her kinsmen preferred to charge into battle wearing very little armor so that it wouldn't slow them down as they swung their two-handed weapon's around as if they were as light as a feather. Personally she preferred to make sure her body was well protected while she was swinging away with the Ice Blade greatsword and over time she had grown more used to wearing heavy armor and thus didn't slow her down too much.

When Fridya was fully armoured up she strapped the Ice Blade to her back and ensuring it was firmly in place in the scabbard, the strap's wrapping their way tightly past the bear pelt cloak and around her cuirass, attached the two dragonbone war axe's to her leather belt and finally Fridya strapped her black furred backpack which held the bare essentials of her fur and leather tent's which were small enough to be secured tightly onto the backpack along with a waterskin and axe used for chopping wood.

Now fully armed and armoured Fridya walked over to the nearby mirror and began sorting out her long blonde hair until the dishevelled look her blonde lock's had formed were back to their original state and followed up by taking one of the many stick's of charcoal Fridya had wrapped up in a bundle of linen cloth and applied the war paint to her face.

After she was done, Fridya put the stick of charcoal which had worn down to about half of the size it was before back amongst the other charcoal stick's and wrapped them up in the linen cloth and carefully stored them away in her backpack.

Walking out of her room Fridya walked on over to the room adjacent to hers and checked inside and the little Nord girl the Dragonborn had adopted; Sofie was still fast asleep in her bed. While Fridya didn't consider herself to be too much of a parent she still couldn't very well let the poor homeless girl freeze to death out in the freezing street's of Windhelm and so not long after being given Hjerim she had adopted the small child who had taken to selling flower's as a means to earn gold and huddling near anything close to anything warm.

Ulfric had granted Fridya the house as a reward for finding and slaying the Butcher of Windhelm who had been plaguing Windhelm for far too long. She had brought Calixto Corrium's severed head to Ulfric along with a very distraught citizen of Windhelm who thankfully Fridya had managed to save before the butcher could strike the woman down. With the citizen who confirmed Calixto had been the one to almost end her life Ulfric was incredibly thankful that the vile Imperial responsible for the death's of Susanna and many before her was finally dead and with the Butcher's identity being unveiled as an Imperial it certainly aided in Ulfric's increased disgust at the race of Imperial's and their Empire even more.

After checking up on Sofie, Fridya walked down the stairs to see her housecarl Calder practicing his swordsmanship skill's on a training dummy Fridya had bought. It was the least she could do as Calder spent most of his time indoor's protecting her home and Sofie and like many Nord's he rather enjoyed fighting and each time she left Hjerim she knew Calder silently wished he could accompany her but he knew his duty was to protect Fridya's home from thieves and ensure no harm came to Sofie. Calder was more of a parent to Sofie than she was as being the Dragonborn she was out and travelling Skyrim for long period's of time, only dropping by Hjerim when she was near Windhelm and needed a place to rest.

Calder did seem rather happy after Fridya had adopted Sofie as she assumed he rather enjoyed having some company to talk to instead of sitting in her house all day completely alone with only himself as his own company.

The Nord housecarl was too busy practicing on the dummy to notice her to which Fridya exited her home and found herself in the snowy and cold street's of Windhelm and began making her way towards the Palace of Kings to seek an audience with Jarl Ulfric.

"My Jarl, Ulfric" Fridya kneeled respectfully as she stood before the Jarl of Eastmarch and soon to be High King of Skyrim. Ulfric's right-hand man and housecarl Galmar Stone-Fist, a great best of a Nord ready to give his life to defend his Thane and leader of the Stormcloak's; a cause that was truly a sight to behold now with the Dragonborn in their ranks stood close by the throne of which Ulfric was set upon.

"Rise, Dragonborn" the Jarl acknowledged, allowing the young Nord woman to get back to standing before him "what is it you require?"

"It's been a long time coming and I've put it off for too long." Fridya spoke "I'm bringing the fight to the last bastion of the Thalmor here in Skyrim and plan to attack their embassy in Haafingar but I need help" she stopped talking when she assumed Ulfric caught onto what she was asking and held up a hand for her to wait for his reply.

"And you want me to give you the Stormcloaks you need?" truth be told Ulfric wanted to join the Dragonborn in the attack on the Thalmor embassy, the bitch who had tortured him; Elenwen resided there, he wanted to wrap his hand's around the arrogant Altmer's neck and watch as her life slowly ebbed away at his hand's. He wanted to strip the bitch naked and force himself on Elenwen's naked form before throwing her to his men to enjoy before finally relieving the bitch's head from her shoulder's. Ulfric despised rape, it was a vile act, however if the one on the receiving end of a raping was a member of the Thalmor or a Thalmor sympathizer he had no sympathy for them. They get what they deserve.

"Yes, my Jarl"

"Very well, on one condition" Ulfric began "I want that bitch Elenwen's head once you and your men are finished sacking that place. I want you to ensure no Thalmor leaves that place alive. And see if you can find that milk-driker coward Ondolemar in there and if you can then relieve him of his head too" unfortunately, when the Stormcloaks had been given Markarth during the council at High Hrothgar it seemed the leader of the Thalmor Justiciar's had fled Markarth before his forces arrived there. Ulfric would make sure that knife-eared little milk-drinker would not escape a second time.

"Oh trust me my Jarl, those Thalmor scum will be begging for mercy when I'm through with them" a predatory grin crossed the Dragonborn's face. "I'll be waiting at the Four Shields Tavern in Dragon Bridge" Fridya informed.

As he watched her go Ulfric let out a slight chuckle. Yes, he wanted to go with her; he wanted to be there and end the last of the Thalmor himself but part of him also worried for Fridya safety even though he knew full well the Dragonborn could handle herself against those Thalmor cunt's but still...he had in all honesty started to develop feeling's for the young Nord woman. That however was unsurprising as Ulfric guessed Fridya had admirer's all over Skyrim; she was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, was an excellent blacksmith to boot.

* * *

"Can I get you anything else, Dragonborn?" the voice of the Dragon Bridge innkeeper Faida asked as she took the plate from the Nordic woman responsible for the saving of her homeland who had just finished eating up a rather hearty serving of cooked bear meat along with a mug of traditional Nord mead to wash it all down.

"No, that's quite enough for now thank you" Fridya smiled as she washed the last of the bear meat down with what remained of her mug of mead.

The door to the Four Shields Tavern opened causing Fridya to turn her head towards it and noticed that a group of roughly five to six Stormcloak soldiers walked into the tavern of which three of them Fridya had recognized almost immediately the moment they walked in.

"Ralof! Avulstein! Thorald!" she greeted warmly as she got up from her table to greet the three Stormcloaks she had met not long after arriving in Skyrim. "Why am I not surprised to see you three here?" she chuckled. It had been a long time since she had seen Ralof and even longer since she had seen the two young Grey-Mane brother's.

"Fridya, it seems those Thalmor cunt's have a way of bringing us together" Thorald joked as Fridya embraced all three of her Stormcloak friends in a firm hug. "we're finally going to do what those Empire milk-drinker's were too cowardly to do and finally put an end to those knife-ear's once and for all!" the Grey-Mane brother's were practically jumping for joy. The moment every Nord loyal to Skyrim was waiting for was upon them and Thorald was practically begging to bloody his battleaxe with the blood of the knife-eared cunt's who had tortured him mercilessly for week's, if not month's on end and Avulstein was more than happy to aid his brother in exterminating the Thalmor from his homeland.

"Well, I'd say we've been waiting for long enough haven't we?" Fridya said eagerly "the Thalmor will no longer defile Skyrim with their presence after this day" she turned to Faida and thanked the innkeeper for her food and drink's to which she received a gracious smile before she, the three nameless Stormcloak soldier's, Ralof, Thorald and Avulstein left the inn.

Exiting the inn and walking out into the small town of Dragon Bridge, Fridya was greeted with the sight of roughly five hundred male and female Stormcloak soldier's; some with full face helmet's covering their faces entirely and some with their face's bare, most of them being archer's who forgoing helmet's in favour of having greater accuracy. One thing that was etched onto the face's of each and every Stormcloak was that of pure excitement. This had been what they had been fighting for ever since Ulfric started the rebellion. Today was the day they would finally eliminate the last of the Thalmor from their homeland completely.

Ralof, Thorald and Avulstein rejoined their comrade's as Fridya began addressing the assembled force of sons and daughter's of Skyrim.

"Brother's and sister's of Skyrim!" Fridya began "TODAY IS THE DAY EACH OF YOU HAVE FOUGHT AND BLED FOR AND SOME EVEN DIED FOR! TODAY IS THE DAY WE PAINT THE SNOW RED WITH THE BLOOD OF THE THALMOR!" a raucous cheer followed with the promise of Thalmor dead. Something that was constantly on the mind's of many Nord's of Skyrim. The only good Thalmor was a dead Thalmor.

Fridya smiled "not too far from here the last bastion of the Thalmor lies. Their embassy. This is the last place they have to hide. Now I don't know about any of you but I'd say those scumbag's have overstayed their welcome in Skyrim!"

A loud cheer echoed throughout the small village once again.

"WE MARCH!" Fridya yelled. Not long after the force of five hundred Stormcloak's, Fridya at the helm began their short march towards the final piece to topple to bring down the Thalmor presence in Skyrim.

"This is complete horker shit!" came the disgruntled voice of an irate Stormcloak soldier. "We should be part of the main attack on the embassy"

"If this is where the Dragonborn wants us then this is where we shall be" Ralof growled. While he would've very much liked to have joined Fridya in the main assault on the Thalmor embassy she had tasked him with taking command of a portion of the Stormcloak forces to stay outside the cave exit which housed the escape route from the Thalmor embassy that the Dragonborn herself used back when she had to infilitrate the embassy to figure out whether the Thalmor knew anything about the return of the dragon's.

"Bu..." the Stormcloak retorted before a look from Ralof silenced him.

"These scumbag's are Thalmor, remember? They have no honour. They flee from a fight the moment they start losing. They're weak pathetic milk-drinker's. We will have no shortage of Thalmor knife-ear's to bloody our blade's with" Ralof assured. "The Dragonborn and her forces will assault the embassy and plenty of Thalmor skeever's will run right into our trap"

The word's instilled some hope in the irate Stormcloak at the chance of Thalmor blood "better be" he murmured under his breath.

Ralof said nothing as he readied his battleaxe and gestured for those under his command to ready their weapon's too. He couldn't wait to bloody his axe with Thalmor blood.

"KINSMEN! ARE YOU READY TO SPILL SOME THALMOR BLOOD?!" Fridya yelled to the crowd of Stormcloaks thirsty for Thalmor blood under her command before she turned towards the large steel gate blocking Fridya and her group of Stormcloaks access to the Thalmor embassy grounds. "REMEMBER, ANY MAGIC USING THALMOR TAKE PRIORITY. THOSE FUCKER'S HIT HARD AS SHIT!"

The gate blocking their way didn't last for long. "FUS RO DAH!" the sheer force of the ancient thu'um forced the metal off its hinges and threw the metal door's across the courtyard. Barely any time had passed before Fridya and her Stormcloaks poured into the courtyard of the Thalmor embassy. The war cries of the assembled Nord's drowning out the order's the Thalmor commander's were giving their troop's

"DEATH TO THE THALMOR!" Fridya heard Thorald yell out as the Grey-Mane twin barrelled into a Thalmor Justiciar at full force knocking the Altmer onto his back and then proceeded to bring down and bury his battleaxe down on the prone elf's skull causing the Thalmor Justiciar's head to split in two. This would be the first of many Thalmor he was practically frothing at the mouth to eliminate.

"AAAGH!" one of the Stormcloak soldier's near Fridya yelled as her body was torn apart by a fully charged thunderbolt spell from a Thalmor wizard across the far side of the courtyard. The same wizard almost got Fridya too but a quick duck caused the spell to just singe the top of the Dragonborn's head but wound up hitting another poor unlucky Stormcloak at full force sending his body flying across the courtyard and turning into a charred heap of flesh. Getting a solid lock onto the wizard's position Fridya focused her attention on the knife-ear.

"WULD NAH KEST" within second's Fridya closed the distance between the Thalmor wizard responsible for the death of two of her comrade's to which the Thalmor inquestion kept backing away attempting to keep as much distance from himself and the greatsword wielding Dragonborn as he could only to find his back brushing up against a wall.

Acting quickly the Thalmor wizard quickly conjured up a towering frost atronach, the giant construct of ice towered over Fridya, however the Ice Blade greatsword wasn't just for looks and with a quick swipe across the frost atronach's bulky left leg Fridya caused the frost construct to topple over leaving the Thalmor wizard vulnerable.

Before the wizard could get another spell off Fridya ran forward and with a quick thrust she impaled the Thalmor wizard on her blade, the expensive black and gold robes did little to stop the blade from piercing the Altmer's heart. The Thalmor didn't last long enough for the blade to utilize its freezing abilities on him as his world went black the moment the Ice Blade reached his heart.

Now with the troublesome Thalmor wizard out of the way, Fridya rejoined the Stormcloaks who were making significant progress toward's the embassy. There were more than a few Stormcloak's who had fallen in battle that were now resting in Sovengarde however thankfully there were more Thalmor bodies that littered the cold snow than there were Stormcloaks. There were only a few Thalmor Justiciar's left in the courtyard who were currently being pushed back towards the stairs leading to the interior of the embassy by the Stormcloak forces.

"VICTORY OR SOVENGARDE!" one of the Stormcloak's yelled and buried his warhammer into the torso of a Thalmor wizard, the massive weapon shattered the Altmer's rib's causing him to drop to the floor on his hand's and knee's before the Stormcloak brought the warhammer up over his head and crushed the Thalmor wizard's head beneath it, chunk's of his head decorated the pearly white snow which was slowly being drenched in blood.

Finally the Thalmor occupying the courtyard were either laying dead on the freezing cold ground or had fled back into the embassy. They could run as much as they liked but they would not escape their death's. Not any longer.

"Wonder if that Ondolemar cunt is here?" Avulstein wondered. After the war between the Empire and Storcloaks had been brought to a temporary halt due to the peace summit between the two forces at High Hrothgar he had been one of the Stormcloaks sent to Markarth to reinforce it after the Empire pulled out of the Reach as were the term's of the treaty. The Stormcloaks got the Reach and the Empire got the Rift and when Avulstein and his men arrived in Markarth the leader of the Justiciar's had already made his exit.

"Here's hoping, brother" Thorald grinned.

* * *

The door to the Thalmor embassy didn't stay intact for too long as it was soon kicked off it's hinges by Avulstein's heavy boot. It seemed there were more Thalmor Justiciar's than there were wizard's inside the embassy for which Fridya was thankful. She hated facing off against mage's especially ones as talented as Thalmor wizard's. Being hit full on by a thunderbolt spell was practically a death sentence for anyone not wearing a decent suit of armor.

"So the mindless barbarian rabble are finally here" the condescending and arrogant voice that Fridya knew all too well spoke up as it's owner slowly walked into view before the Dragonborn and her Stormcloak soldier's. It was him; Ondolemar. The Justiciar leader was now stood in front of the Thalmor Justiciar's forming a defensive line in preparation for the oncoming Stormcloak onslaught.

"You're going to die this day, cunt" Fridya sneered at the Altmer "nowhere left for you to run. This day the Thalmor will be no more. No longer will you threaten Skyrim!" she had no patience to let Ondolemar do a typical villainous monologue and simply aimed her greatsword at the Thalmor Justiciar leader and yelled "ATTACK!"

There were a never ending stream of Stormcloak's that poured in through the door to the embassy as the Stormcloak forces charged at the defensive line of Thalmor Justiciar's. While Avulstein, Thorald and the rest of the Stormcloak's focused on taking down the Justiciar's, Fridya's focus was entirely on finally ending Ondolemar here and now.

Fridya found herself unable to close the gap between her and Ondolemar as she was too busy ducking and swerving from the numerous thunderbolt spells that the Justiciar seemed to never run out of magicka of which he needed to use them.

"Oh for fuck sake!" Fridya growled as she was getting rather annoyed of being constantly on the defensive "FUS RO DAH!" the thu'um exited the young Nord's throat at full force but it seemed Ondolemar was prepared for this and within mere second's of the blast hitting him the Justiciar formed a ward around him causing the blast to pas through him without knocking him over on his back.

"AARGH!" Fridya yelled as Ondolemar wound up hitting her in the shoulder with a thunderbolt spell causing her to fly back and hit her back against the fireplace roughly and land on her back.

"It's over, Dragonborn" Ondolemar grinned menacingly as he approached the prone Dragonborn "this is where you die. Your country will fall to the Thal...AAAAGH!" Ondolemar screamed in pain as he fell to his stomach after feeling his left leg cut off from underneath his knee-cap as a battleaxe swung into his robe's with ease and slammed into his flesh.

"I don't think so" the gruff voice of Thorald Grey-Mane snarled as he brought his battleaxe back from Ondolemar's severed leg. He, Avulstein and their fellow Stormcloak's had finally cleared the room they were currently in of Thalmor.

"Thank's" Fridya grinned gratefully "seems you're the one saving me this time" she chuckled as Thorald offered her a hand to help her up.

"Guess we're even now eh?" Thorald grinned before looking down at Ondolemar who was now missing a leg and was desperately trying to halt the sheer amount of blood that was draining out of his severed leg "now what to do with you, knife-ear?" Thorald hummed "Dragonborn?" he asked, his head turned towards the young Nord woman.

"Fuck you!" Ondolemar sneered as he desperately tried stopping his blood loss and the darkness rapidly creeping closer and closer. "This is not the end, the Thalmor will destroy this pathetic land and all it's filthy inhabitant's."

"I think he's done talking don't you?" Fridya grinned before raising the Ice Blade over her head and bringing it down upon Ondolemar's neck, severing his head from his shoulder's. As soon as the Dragonborn's blade sliced through Ondolemar's neck the Thalmor embassy erupted in cheers of elated Stormcloaks. "If any of you are heading to Markarth after we're done take that... _thing's_ head to Jarl Thongvor Silver-Blood. I'm sure he'll be happy to see Ondolemar again" Fridya ordered to which a Stormcloak soldier came and picked up the Altmer's severed head.

"I'll make sure he gets it, Dragonborn" the Stormcloak nodded before he spat on the decapitated Altmer's head and attached it to his belt.

Now all that was left was to eliminate the Thalmor remnants in the remaining part's of the Thalmor embassy and free any prisoner's from the jail cell's where Fridya had gained the information about Esbern from the prisoner she helped escape the last time she had been here.

"Accursed barbarians!" Elenwen cursed as she rushed to gather up as many important documents in her room in the Thalmor embassy as she could. She couldn't leave anything behind for those heathen's to use against the Aldmerri Dominion. She had been packing up her thing's ever since she could hear the fighting. She had no doubt the damn Dragonborn bitch was amongst them, the Stormcloak rebel's would've never won the war without her and Elenwen had no wish to face her in battle, at least not in this enclosed space. She was highly trained in all school's of magic but the simple fact was that if she ran into Fridya she would be within melee range of her and Elenwen was no close quarter's fighter.

She had no doubt that her lover Ondolemar had fallen, the Stormcloak rabble were not one's to take prisoner's so her hope that he had escaped was very low. She would escape through the hatch in the room with the prisoner's and inform her superior's in Alinor of what transpired and hopefully get a large enough force to return to Skyrim and crush the Talos worshipping heretic's and the Dragonborn. She had finally collected all of the important document's and then she saw the door to her room get smashed in and there in the doorway stood the bane of the Thalmor in Skyrim, Fridya Scar-Pommel.

"YOU!" Elenwen snarled at the young Nord woman currently blocking her only escape. "You will..."

Elenwen never got to finish her sentence as Fridya had already charged forward into the Thalmor Ambassador knocking her over onto her back causing all the important documents relating to the Aldmerri Dominion to fly out of her hand and land on her desk in a scattered pile. The Thalmor ambassador had barely any time to get up as the Dragonborn had already pounced on her and was now lying atop the trapped Altmer.

"What are you waiting for then? Do it!" Elenwen snarled as Fridya brought one of her two axe's attached to her belt and held the bladed edge extremely close to the Altmer's throat. All it would take was just a single thrust forward and the last remaining Thalmor in Skyrim would be no more but no, Fridya had different plan's for Elenwen. Killing her would be letting the Thalmor ambassador off too lightly. No, she had a better idea.

"No, killing you would be too little a punishment for you" Fridya smirked "I have a _much_ more fitting punishment in mind for you, bitch" Fridya finalized her cryptic statement by delivering a hard punch to the Thalmor ambassador's face with her right hand causing the Altmer to lose consciousness. Now with Elenwen unconscious, Fridya could begin her punishment for the ambassador in ernest then and proceeded to lift up the bottom of Elenwen's robe's just enough so that the Nord could wrap a rope around her leg's until she had wound the rope around the Altmer's leg's enough that Elenwen's leg's were now firmly held together by the rope which still had a decent amount left to it and then proceeded to tie Elenwen's hand's behind her back effectively leaving her in a hogtie..

"Dragonborn!" Fridya turned her head to see Avulstein Grey-Mane walk through the door to Elenwen's chamber's.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked curiously, a brow raised as she finished tying up Elenwen.

Avulstein glanced at the unconscious and tied up Thalmor ambassador "knew that bitch would be no match for you" he chuckled "the men have found something that they're wondering what you'd like to do with? It's in a building in the courtyard"

Fridya shrugged, they had finished what they had come to do. The Thalmor embassy was now littered with the corpses of numerous Thalmor Justiciar's and wizard's "okay then" she looked down at the unconscious Elenwen as she let go of the rope "make sure she doesn't get any funny idea's if she comes to"

"Will do" Avulstein nodded as he moved out of the way of the door to allow Fridya to leave and proceeded to glare at the unconscious Altmer like a hawk.

"Well that certainly is...something" Fridya said, intrigued. She was now in the building which Avulstein told her about and what greeted her was one of the largest what she guessed was some kind of mirror she had ever seen. It was at least twice as tall as her and the framing of the mirror had what she could only assume was some kind of elvish engraving's. No human would make something like this and with the size of the mirror it was the kind of thing that only the high-up nobility of Altmer society could afford.

"You should see this" a Stormcloak soldier said handing Fridya a journal that the Stormcloak had pried from one of the chest's in the room as he and his fellow kinsmen searched the place for any loot that he could relieve the Thalmor of. They were dead, not like they needed it anyway.

 _To anyone using the mirror ensure to use caution. The majority of the inhabitant's of Thedas are incredibly paranoid about any kinds of magic and even the simplest of fireball's will cause an unnecessary amount of trouble to come your way and there may be a chance that you will be accosted by what we have learned to be a group of overzealous mage-hunter's who go by the name Templar's to attempt to kill you._

 _Stick to the forest's and continue with our main course of action. Use whatever means necessary you can to ensure these Dalish as they call themselves to become disposable shock troop's for the Aldmerri Dominion. They have proven easy to manipulate so far with the promise of vengeance against the race of men of Thedas in exchange for serving us._

 _When coming into contact with a clan of wandering Dalish demonstrate the superiority of the Thalmor by showing them the spell's at our disposal by laying waste to any human village located in whichever part of the forest you find yourself in._

 _First Emmisary Elenwen._

This was bad, the Thalmor were recruiting these Dalish elves as they called them into the Aldmerri Dominion? What was interesting to Fridya was the mention of 'using' the mirror. What exactly did they mean by that? How were the Thalmor 'using' the mirror?

Out of curiosity Fridya reached forward and to her surprise found her entire hand disappeared through the glass surface. Reacting immidately she quickly pulled her hand back out and gazed at the mirror. This was going to warrant further investigation but first there was one last task to do.

"Gather our fallen and prepare a pyre" Fridya ordered everyone "they died ensuring the Thalmor tyranny was wiped out. They deserve a warrior's funeral"

* * *

The large double doors to the Palace of King's opened and Ulfric's eye's were quickly drawn to the person entering his hall. He grinned, Fridya had survived the assault on the Thalmor embassy. Her return caused his heart to relax, a change from its constant worrying ever since the young Nord departed. The Dragonborn wasn't alone however. It seemed she was dragging something or someone behind her with a rope.

"Jarl Ulfric" Fridya bowed respectfully. "I come bearing a gift" she then grabbed the person she was dragging along behind her and threw the hogtied captive in front of his throne. It was her, the Dragonborn had brought to him the restrained Thalmor ambassador Elenwen. The same bitch who had tortured him during his captivity at the hands of the Thalmor.

"Wakey wakey, bitch" Fridya sneered before roughly slapping the Thalmor ambassador across the face. "Somebody is _very_ eager to meet you" she'd had to knock out Elenwen multiple times during the travel from the Thalmor embassy back to Windhelm and had resorted to gagging the knife-eared bitch as she had been incapable of shutting up.

Elenwen finally awoke from her unconscious state and looked up. She couldn't move any of her limb's and there above her was the one person in Skyrim who despised her more than anything. No matter how much she struggled she found herself looking up into the face of Ulfric Stormcloak who now had a victorious malicious smile adorning his face. For the first time in her life Elenwen was terrified.

"Dragonborn, this is...this is the greatest gift anybody has given me" the Bear of Eastmarch said honestly "name anything you want and you shall have it"

"There is only one thing I want" Fridya said looking into the scared face of the Thalmor ambassador "make her suffer"

The grin never left Ulfric's face "oh I plan on doing exactly that, Dragonborn" to which he then got up off his throne and began descending towards Elenwen. His vengeance against the bitch now firmly in his hand's.

As much as she wanted to watch Ulfric make Elenwen beg for death she had bigger concern's, the apparent potential allies the Thalmor were receiving in the form of whoever these Dalish elves were in wherever this Thedas place was. She would need to go and either convince these elves they were being manipulated or if it came down to it eliminate them.

It was time for yet another adventure.


	2. New Lands New Threats New Faces

"Come on, just go through it and stop acting like such a pathetic milk-drinker" Fridya growled to herself as she pushed her hand through the mysterious large mirror that her men had found in the now abandoned Thalmor embassy which was decorated with the decomposing bodies of slain Thalmor soldier's. There was no point in clearing away the dead knife-ear's bodies as the Stormcloaks had already ransacked the entire embassy 'relieving' them of anything even remotely valuable and sooner or later the wolves would find their way inside and take care of the slain Thalmor's bodies anyway.

It didn't feel any different as the Nord tested the strange magical mirror with her hand which had disappeared through as it waited for her entire body to follow it through. Fridya didn't exactly have the highest opinion of anything magical. Magic was the tool of cowardly milk-drinker's too scared to learn how to use a real weapon. She would never admit it out loud but in truth magic did unnerve her slightly. Everyone in Tamriel was born with some degree of magicka in them; even herself but it fell upon said individual to decide if they wished to further it. It was because of this reason the idea of anyone in Skyrim being a mage worried her, what if she was walking by some innocent looking resident of Skyrim only for them to take her by surprise by said resident suddenly turning on her and throw a powerful spell at her to catch her off guard and kill her thus denying her of death in glorious battle? She would be denied Sovengarde and that was something that scared the Dragonborn more than anything.

Should she have the College of Winterhold look at this strange mirror before she went through it? Fridya wondered but then there was the high possibility those damn mage's would take far too long to give a simple yes or no answer if it was safe to pass through. No, something like this would do no good in the hands of mage's. Fridya knew that Jarl Korir of Winterhold blamed the Great Collapse on the college but even though she distrusted magic even Fridya had to admit that such a thought did sound a little ridiculous. Magic was powerful yes but she doubted it was _that_ powerful.

Fridya took a deep breath. She needed to see if these 'Dalish elves' were truly an ally of the Thalmor. If they were then she would need to put an end to them or if they were indeed unknowingly being manipulated and not joined the Thalmor yet then she would need to convince them to abandon their alliance with the haughty elves of the Summerset Isles. Just how many Thalmor knew about this mirror anyway? Was it just Elenwen and her ilk which now lay dead by Fridya and her fellow Stormcloak's or did the main force of the Aldmerri Dominion on the Summerset Isles use it too?

Enough. Stepping forward Fridya allowed herself to make the final plunge and walked through the strange magical mirror. She had a task to accomplish and by Talos she wouldn't let anything stop her. These potential allies of the Thalmor in this new continent of what was it? Thedas? needed to be dealt with either by force or peace. She had already done as much as she could for her homeland already and thankfully it would no longer be threatened by dragon's or vampire's and now it was time to ensure her homeland wouldn't be in danger from these Dalish elves whoever they were.

"Oof!" Fridya groaned as she found herself falling forwards onto her stomach as she was thrown out of the mirror/portal of which she had never seen before. The experience after passing through was a very rare feeling to the Nord who had only ever encountered this type of travel before when going after Auriel's Bow and in all honesty did cause her to become slightly queasy as it did back then.

Getting up off her stomach, the Dragonborn got to her feet and had a look around at her current surrounding's. With almost lightning fast quickness Fridya pushed her hand against the mirror which looked exactly the same as the one in the Thalmor embassy and much to the Nord's delight her hand passed right through into the shimmering surface of the mirror confirming that Fridya could very well indeed return to Skyrim if she changed her mind. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped and denied entry back to Skyrim or even Tamriel in general, the very idea was worse than the thought of death but then again she was a warrior, she had travelled to Sovengarde to finish off Alduin once and for all and as a result Fridya had seen that the tale's told of her people's afterlife were true. All of them. After seeing such a thing she no longer feared death.

The area Fridya was in was unlike anything she had ever been before. A thick fog covered wherever it is she was, as she walked through it there was one thing that she noticed. Mirror's. Many of the mirror's that looked identical to the one she had just exited lined up as far as the eye could see. Row's upon row's of tall mirror's dominated the strange mist-covered place. There were also tree's, strange tree's bereft of leaf's and that's branches curled skyward's, twisted and warped into a nearly perfect spherical shape .

"Wonderful, just wonderful" Fridya groaned as she looked at each of the mirror's. Every single one of them she looked at so far had been deactivated. How exactly was she to find the one that led to this Thedas place? How long would she be searching for a single damned mirror?

What felt like hour's Fridya walked amongst the deactivated mirror-like portal's and every fibre of her being was telling her to just give up and return to Tamriel, the place she was in was alien and unpredictable anyway. She had almost decided to return to the mirror that would lead her back to Tamriel but then Fridya found herself standing in front of a mirror which surface glimmered much like the one she had come from. Cautiously putting her hand on the glass of the new mirror the Nord found her hand going through the mirror much like the one from before.

"Finally, thank Talos" Fridya sighed, relieved and proceeded to walk through the new mirror's surface into what she hoped was Thedas. If not then she would have to step back through it again and return to Tamriel. She'd spent far too long searching for a mirror to lead to Thedas and if this one didn't then her patience had finally met its end.

* * *

Fridya surveyed her surroundings by the looks of it she was in a crumbling ruin of kinds. Looking back the mirror she had exited still had its shimmering surface and once again the Nord put her hand onto the surface causing it to sink into the towering magical mirror. That was a relief at least, a way back home.

Walking through the ruins Fridya made sure to keep track of the direction she was going so that she could retrace her steps if she needed to retreat for whatever reason. Had she been a scholar or mage she knew she would be spending way too much time amongst these crumbling ruins that she was walking through had carving's along the chipped wall's that were somewhat similar to the engraving's in the Hall of Stories in the draugr-infested barrow's of Skyrim.

It took some time but eventually the Nord found herself coming to the end of the ruins. The crumbling structure's lurked behind her and in front of Fridya loomed a dense forest. Fridya groaned, she could either go back and return to Tamriel and leave these possible Thalmor allies alive or she could proceed into the heavily tree-infested forest and spend what would be no doubt hour's of mindlessly walking through the dense forest. By Talos, she'd kill to have a Bosmer at her side right now, no doubt with the aid of a native of Valenwood it would take hardly any time at all to find a way through the forest to the other side. Come to think of it Fridya briefly considered summoning Durnehviir and flying over the forest making it much easier but quickly dismissed the thought. Summoning a dragon and an undead one at that would draw far too much attention to her, she had no idea if Thedas even had dragon's inhabiting it in the first place.

"By Talos, I hate forest's" Fridya grumbled as she waded her way through the thick verdant brush of the seemingly never ending tree. She would much rather take the freezing cold wasteland that was her people's homeland than step foot in any kind of forest of any kind. She'd barely been away from Skyrim for more than a few hour's and Fridya was already missing the freezing cold homeland of her people, the province that was the coldest in all of Tamriel.

Finally, after a few hour's, Fridya found herself coming to the edge of the forest and found herself looking upon a dirt road that led along the forest's edge. Unfortunately it seemed that the sun would be going down soon so she would have to find somewhere suitable to set up camp. It wouldn't be nearly as difficult to do as it would in Skyrim which was constantly battered by freezing cold winds and heavy snowfall's all year long.

* * *

It didn't take long to find a decent camping spot away from the forest's edge. Fridya didn't want to set up camp anywhere near the forest as she had no intention of having her campsite get ambushed by any sort of inhabitant's that found itself wandering out from the forest itself. A sparse patch of dry land in the otherwise grass-covered land that blanketed the ground.

It took barely any time for Fridya to set up a campfire. The many times she had to set up a roaring fire quickly in order to stave off the freezing cold temperature of Skyrim while competing with fighting off the cold in the northern parts of Skyrim in Eastmarch and The Pale made setting up a fire much easier than it had been when she first set foot in Skyrim. She may indeed be a Nord and yes her people were naturally rather heavily resistant to freezing cold temperatures but however a blizzard was still a blizzard and anyone caught in the middle of one; Nord or not was destined to find themselves dead if unprepared. Blizzard's were after all a very common occurrence the further up north of Skyrim you ventured to.

Fridya was thankful that she brought a bundle of firewood with her. She didn't bring enough for it to weigh her down too much but it was enough to make a more substantial fire than a very basic one that resulted in a very pathetic weak flicker of flames. Soon enough a warming fire flickered in front of the Nord's eye's. It didn't warm her up that much, not that she needed to as wherever she was right now had the same environment roughly as The Rift. The only thing different about it was the wind was actually slightly less colder.

Now with the campfire lit, Fridya started setting up her leather tent. The light from the fire was quickly becoming the only source of light nearby as night was falling upon the plains which would soon be blanketed in pitch black of night. The small tent had served the Nord well ever since she began her adventures in her people's homeland, she barely took anyone with her on her adventures as she normally preferred the solitude and she needn't need to ensure the safety of any possible companion's. Fridya knew that if she did bring along anyone she knew on her adventure's and they perished it would weigh upon her rather heavily for a great deal of time and as a result two small compact tent's of both leather and fur was all she needed to bring with her wherever she went.

Soon both campfire and tent were set up and Fridya took a seat next to the campfire and reached into her satchel which held a great deal of cooked food and pulled out a cooked wolf steak and began feasting upon it. She certainly wasn't much of a cook, she was no famed Gourmet like the mysterious chef whose true identity hardly anyone in Skyrim knew but as far as she was concerned so long as the haphazardly cooked meat she made was edible and free of diseases then it would be fine.

Suddenly, a loud shriek echoed out of the rapidly growing darkness. The sun had nearly sunk down over the horizon. Fridya readied the Ice Blade of the Monarch greatsword as she quickly dropped her wolf steak and got to her feet and looked around rapidly for the source of the shriek. The quiet of dusk was interrupted by the sound of feet impacting against the ground.

The shrieking came once again and Fridya turned to where the now louder shriek came from and was greeted by a group of four strange creature's. They ran along the ground on all fours, had menacing looking blade's attached to their wrist's and had the visage of a sharp yellow toothed mouth, slanted eye's and two long ear's which looked almost elf-like and they were lightly armour in what looked like rusted brown shoulderpad's and the rest of their armor looked rather leathery. They could run nearly as fast as a sabre cat as within seconds the strange creature's were upon the Nord.

A quick thrust of her greatsword impaled one of the creature's as it leapt for her causing yet another shriek to escape it's maw except instead of a threatening shriek of intimidation this one instead sounded much more pained as the Dragonborn's weapon pierced through its abdomen and skewered it upon the ice-enchanted blade thus killing it outright. It wasn't long after she had killed the monster impaled on her sword that another one of them had pounced and knocked the Dragonborn onto her back on the ground causing the dead creature to slip off her blade and onto the ground beside her.

The creature then brought it's sharp claw's to bare and attempted to slash Fridya's throat open only for the Nord to get her hand on one of the two dragonbone axe's strapped to her waist and with a forceful swing she slammed it into the creature's neck causing the thing to let out a loud shriek of pain much like it's recent slain comrade which was enough of a distraction to allow Fridya to push with all her might and knocked the creature off her allowing her to get to her feet and look upon the remaining three sharp-clawed creature's.

As she was about to call upon the power of the Thu'um to finish off the strange creature's a large fireball suddenly slammed into the creature's causing them to let out their shriek of pain as they began to catch fire and proceed to turn towards their new attacker's and one of the strange creature's was quickly impaled on two longsword's by a man in silver heavy armour with gold trimming.

Another fireball impacted against the final two creature's which proved to be their undoing as their shrieking ceased to stop until both of them to fall down to the ground; dead. The man who had impaled the creature upon his two longsword's let the thing slide off his dual blade's and turned towards the Nord.

The person casting the fireball's soon joined the man by his side and walked up towards Fridya.

Fridya now had a clearer look at the two newcomer's. The dual sword wielding man was dressed in heavy silver armour with gold trimmings along the edges and some strange golden creature was engraved upon the man's breastplate. His hair was fashioned into a ponytail a thick and substantial amount of facial hair decorated his jaw which made him look almost Nord-like.

The other was a man, a wooden staff attached to his back and garbed in simple green robe's. His covered arm's looked somewhat lithe and scrawny but then again by looking at him he was a mage after all, physical strength wasn't exactly their strong point anyway.

"Thanks" Fridya said gratefully to the bearded man who came to a stop opposite the Nord, flanked by his mage companion "and you are?"

The man smiled "Duncan, of the Grey Wardens" he looked at the surrounding dead creature's. "It would seem you attracted these darkspawn's attention"


	3. Castle Cousland

It was getting dark and the only sound was the sound of the crackling campfire which Daylen; the rather skinny-looking mage that Fridya was talking to was using to cook his food. The older man known as Duncan who had saved the Nord from the strange creature had retired to his tent. It was small and compact, the kind that Fridya was more than used to. The perfect size for an adventurer and quick to set up.

"So how'd you wind up out here?" Fridya asked Daylen "you don't exactly look much like the outgoing type" she wasn't exactly too fnd of mages, especially since a certain mage; a mage Dragonborn had almost ended her life in the vile disgusting realm of Apocrypha. Fridya swore she would die a happy woman if she never saw that damn place again.

The young mage shrugged "not exactly like I had a choice in the matter, even if I wanted to" Daylen saw the Nord arch an eyebrow in curiosity, her face illuminated from the campfire "I was ripped away from my family when I was six and taken and held prisoner there in The Circle along with other fellow mages. I'm twenty one now"

"Why?" Fridya asked, curiously. "Why didn't your parent's try and stop the kidnapper's?" she could only imagine what her parent's would've done if anyone tried kidnapping her; both her mother and father were as Nordic as it was possible, they were devout followers of Talos and with her father being a retired Champion in the arena of the Imperial City and her mother being Bruma's blacksmith; her shoulder's more broad than those of the women of other races. Working a forge all day wasn't exactly a profession for weak milk-drinkers.

Daylen snorted "what? You think they could do anything against the templars? They were villagers, not soldiers"

"Templar's?" Fridya asked, she knew she was trying to blend in and not act too much like an outsider as to arouse suspicion but she did have some degree of trust...for a mage in Daylen, he seemed excited to be talking to someone else aside from those he had been acquainted with during his imprisonment for fifteen years.

"Templar's..." Daylen said as if it was obvious "as in the assholes who kidnap mages when they're young and imprison them in Circle tower's like they did with me"

"Why do they target only mages though?" Fridya was geniuinly perplexed, mage's were certainly dangerous to keep as prisoners; people who could summon fire or ice from nowhere. Wouldn't it make more sense to imprison stronger folk's to use as manual labor?

Daylen snorted "all in the name of 'protecting citizen's of Ferelden'" he said sarcastically "paranoid idiot's who think because we can summon the elements we're going to go around killing people left right and centre" he shook his head in disdain "templar's, Chantry. Both are slavers and murderer's and can get away with it"

Fridya's confused expression didn't leave her face "Chantry?" the only time she had heard the word was during the time she and Serana had met Gelebor in the hunt for Auriel's bow.

"Are you even from Thedas?" Daylen chuckled "The Chantry...the 'religion' that has a tendency to enslave or kill anyone who disagrees with their beliefs" seeing the confused look on Fridya's face he continued "the Chantry, the religion whose 'prophet' was a cheating whore and the religion who decided to butcher the Dalish elves in the Exalted Marches due to their inability to accept there are different religions in Thedas"

The mention of the Dalish elves got Fridya's attention "do you have any more information on these Dalish?" she needed to remember her reason why she was here in the first place, she needed to gauge whether these Dalish elves were fully allied with the Thalmor.

Fridya listened as Daylen described how the elves joined Andraste in her march against the Tevinter Imperium, their victory and the betrayal at the hands of the Chantry due to these Dalish refusing to allow the Chantry to build any buildings of their faith on their land. The more and more Fridya listened to the tale the more and more the Chantry were beginning to sound like the Aldmerri Dominion, a group considering themselves superior and their god's to be the only true one's and willing to slay anyone who disagreed with them.

Fridya was beginning to see how Daylen had such disdain for this Chantry. The more she heard about them the more she was beginning to develop a disdain for them too. A religion willing to butcher an entire race of people to the point of near extinction and tear young children away from their families to be imprisoned forever in these Circle's. How anyone in Thedas saw the Chantry as a source of good boggled her mind or even followed their dogmatic teachings.

"That's disgusting!" Fridya said, disgusted as Daylen finished recounting the tale of the March of the Dales "and people just let the Chantry get away with this?" how could anyone trust this Chantry? Wouldn't the inhabitants of Fereldan treat this Chantry with suspicion instead of open arms with how two-faced this 'religion' was? How had it become the major religion of Thedas? She was beginning to see why the Dalish would be considering allying with the Thalmor. While she did hate the Thalmor with every fibre of her being, Fridya still had to admit the skill with magic the arrogant knife-ear's had was not to be taken lightly.

The Dalish certainly seem like they would be desperate enough to agree to any of the Thalmor's demands in exchange for their help in taking vengeance upon the Chantry and the Thalmor would take full advantage of the remaining Dalish's desperation. Part of her had to admit that if she had been a Dalish elf she might've considered doing the same.

"What about you? How'd you wind up here?" Daylen questioned "Avvar, I take it?"

"Huh?" Fridya replied

"Avvar, y'know. Those kinda give it away" the young mage said as he pointed his finger at Fridya's black war paint.

Fridya put on her most convincing of fake smile's "that easy, huh?" she decided to simply go along with whatever he had called her. Avvar. She would need to keep note of this term if she was going to get a convincing fake identity for the time she was in Thedas.

"Well we're not exactly anywhere near the Korcari Wilds so that rules out the possibility of you being a Chasind so that kind of narrowed it down pretty easily" the mage had a rather smug look on his face. Fridya could tell that he hadn't exactly seen many battles, he lacked the stoic expression many fighter's had who had seen battle's and he wasn't exactly on the muscular side, his robes covered most of his body but Fridya knew that he was probably on the scrawny side; mage's didn't exactly concentrate on physical improvement.

"You got me" Fridya shrugged. The two talked with each other with Fridya learning more and more about the basics of Thedas and although she wasn't skilled at lying she still like to think she lied well enough to make Daylen believe she was one of these 'Avvar' people.

Eventually the two grew tired and each retired to their respective tents for the night.

* * *

"There it is, Highever Castle" Duncan informed as he, Daylen and Fridya entered the Teynir of Highever. The Grey Warden had been invited to the home of the 800 year old family estate up north in The Coastlands of Fereldan. From what Teyrn Bryce Cousland had said during the talks that he and the Grey Warden had over the year's he had recommended one of his finest soldiers; Ser Gilmore

"So that's what nobility lives in, huh?" Daylen said, awed. He saw the high walls of the family estate be littered with archers. A home which was large enough to have outer walls large enough to be manned by that many guards was alien to him, he could barely remember anything about his home where he had originally lived before being torn away from it by those templar scum. His entire life as far as he could remember had been trapped in the damnable Circle. He was forever thankful for Duncan being able to remove him from that prison. The fact that this noble family could affors such a large residence along with owning enough coin to pay for soldiers to guard the estate he would admit sent a flare of jealousy through him.

Fridya surveyed the rapidly approaching noble estate. The estate itself was situated inside the four thickly built wall's that surrounded it which certainly looked like they could withstand a significant assault from siege weaponry such as trebuchets and the like. She was certainly no stonemason but even so it didn't exactly take to being one to recognize a sturdy defensible wall when one saw such. The closer the trio got the more the large castle walls reminded the young Nord of the city of Solitude albeit the gatehouse and wall's of Castle Cousland did certainly look more well protected than that of the city which had once held the two most prominent members of the Empire. At least it had before she, Ulfric and their fellow Stormcloaks assaulted the city.

Fridya wasn't surprised when Jarl Elisif had stripped her of her Thaneship of Haafingar after the Stormcloak victory. She did indeed own a house in Solitude and the only reason Fridya guessed as to why Elisif hadn't taken it from her was due to the Dragonborn purchasing the property with her own funds, over ten thousand gold to be precise. Fridya was certain that she made the right choice, Elisif would've made a terrible ruler of Skyrim as nearly every single choice she made she seemed to rely heavily on General Tullius's advice instead of taking control and thinking of her own accord like any decent ruler should. Elisif was a child, she stomped her little feet and sulk but at the end of the day the more competent candidate would be High Kind of Skyrim. Fridya did understand that Elisif was mad that her husband's killer was victorious but that still didn't change the fact that the young woman would've made an incompetent ruler. Skyrim was a land of warriors, not politicians and as such it needed it warrior ruling it.

"Halt!" a loud booming voice shouted from atop the gatehouse as the trio approached the massive door's leading into the Cousland estate. "Who goes there?!"

"Duncan; Warden-Commander of Fereldan and these are my two companions" the bearded Warden gestured to Daylen and Fridya "Teyrn Cousland is expecting me"

The trio watched as the guards atop the wall began conversing with each other determining whether to open the gates to Castle Cousland or not. "Very well"

Duncan pushed open the double doors and lead Daylen and Fridya into the courtyard where the castle's guards were sparring with each other. The guard standing outside the door to the Cousland's estate noticed the bearded Grey Warden and turned and opened the door for the trio and lead them into the main hall of the Cousland estate.

"It is an honour to be a guest within your hall, Teyrn Cousland"

Fridya looked over at the three men Duncan walked up to as she and Daylen followed behind the bearded Warden. Two of the men looked rather aged, and the doublet, pantaloon's and shoes they were wearing practically screamed 'nobility'. The third man was a rather young looking lad, if Fridya hazarded a guess he looked slightly younger than her; early twenties she guessed. He had short black hair and a light stubble of facial hair. The young lad was the only one not dressed like the other two men; a suit of full steel plate armor clung to his young form. She was no longer in Tamriel but the young lad was the spitting image of an Imperial.

"Your Lordship, you didn't mention a Grey Warden would be present" the short-haired noble said, a slight tinge of annoyance in his voice. The blue and gold armor that Duncan wore with the sigil of a griffon engraved on the breastplate made his affiliation with the order as clear as day.

"I invited him here for a private matter, is there a problem?" the medium-length haired noble informed.

"Of course not" the short-haired noble laughed "but a guest of this stature demands certain protocol. I am...at a disadvantage"

"We rarely have the pleasure of seeing one in person, that's true. Pup, Brother Aldous taught you who the Grey Wardens are, I hope?" judging by the name that the older Noble referred to the youngster, Fridya guessed that he must be her father.

"Of course" the young man finally spoke up, "They defeated the darkspawn long ago"

Duncan sighed "not permanently, I fear"

The young man's father turned to his son "without their warning of the darkspawn rising now, half the nation could've been overrun before we had a chance to react" he eyed Daylen and Fridya "if you don't mind me asking, Duncan. Who are these two with you?"

"Ah, my apologies" Duncan said, apologetically as he beckoned the mage and Nord warrior over. " this is Daylen Amell, a mage from the Circle of Magi. One of my Grey Warden recruits"

"A mage?" the short-haired Noble said with a hint of disapproval which didn't go unnoticed by the young Daylen who fixed the man with a glare. He knew that many people didn't trust his kind. All thanks to the pathetic Chantry and their Templar lap-dogs.

"Yes, a mage" Duncan said firmly, it seemed the elder Warden heard the blatant distasteful tone of how the Noble addressed Daylen. "And this here is Fridya Scar-Winter. A volunteer who wants to join the King's army at Ostagar. She asked if she could accompany me to guide her there" Fridya glanced at Duncan, confused. She had _not_ agreed to join anyone's army, much less the King of a foreign land that she had no ties with.

The look that she received from Duncan was clear 'trust me' it implied, he was fabricating a story in order to make the Nobility seem more welcoming to her. She supposed it made sense as high-ranking Nobility such as the fellows Duncan was talking with would no doubt deny a wandering adventurer into their hall's.

"A pleasure to meet you" the medium-length hair Noble said politely as he reached forward and shook both Daylen and Fridya's hand's "I am Bryce Cousland, this here is my old friend Rendon Howe and my young son Aeden" he patted the armoured youngster on his armors' shoulderplate "a fine fighter if I do say so myself" Bryce praised his young son, his armoured state indicating that he had not been slacking in his regular sparring sessions with Ser Gilmore.

"Nice to meet you" Aeden smiled as he shook Daylen's hand. "M'lady" Aeden said before catching Fridya off guard as he kissed her hand instead of shaking it.

"Err thanks" Fridya said, awkwardly as she brought her hand back. Not exactly liking the particular greeting she received.

"Duncan is looking for recruits before joining us and his fellow Grey Wardens in the south. I believe he has got his eye on Ser Gilmore"

So that is why Duncan was here then, Fridya thought.

"If I might be so bold. I would suggest that your son is also an excellent candidate" Duncan said as he eyed up the young Cousland. A young warrior such as him could do the Wardens a world of good within their order instead of spending his entire life inside Castle Cousland.

Bryce frowned before he walked in-between the Warden and his son "honour though that may be, this is one of my sons we're talking about. The youngest in fact"

"You _did_ just finish saying that the Grey Wardens are heroes, old friend" Fridya didn't know why but every time this Rendon Howe opened his mouth that there was something she didn't like about him. Whatever it was she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but then again, she wasn't exactly fond of noble's in particular. Especially ones that sent their men off to do all the fighting as they stayed behind and refused to take part. A noble who refused to take to the battlefield alongside his or her soldiers wasn't a noble she considered worth following.

"I've not so many children that I'll gladly see them all off to battle. I already have one of them getting ready to do as such, as much as it worries me. I do not want both Fergus and Aeden risking their lives" Bryce's tone was both firm although there was a hint of desperation that Duncan would listen to him "unless you intend to invoke the Right of Conscription"

Duncan smiled reassuringly at Bryce "have no fear. While we need as many good recruits as we can find, I've no intention of forcing the issue" the look of relief on Bryce's face was clear.

"Pup, can you ensure Duncan's requests are seen to while I'm gone?" clearly Bryce trusted his son enough to entrust the well-being of such a celebrated individual such as the Warden-Commander of Fereldan.

"Of course, father" Aeden shrugged.

"In the meantime, find Fergus and tell him to lead the troops to Ostagar ahead of me" Bryce said to his young son "be a good lad and do as I've asked"

"Actually, I'd like to ask Duncan why he's interested in recruiting me, first" Aedan was genuinely curious. He was a decent fighter he would admit but he had no idea why Duncan considered him worthy of inducting into the order of some of the finest and most highly respected warrior's of Thedas.

Bryce frowned, he was rather hoping the matter had been dropped and didn't wish to dwell upon the idea any further "very well, but ensure you find your brother after"

"Would you really recruit me into the Grey Wardens?" Aedan asked Duncan with genuine interest "why?"

"Of course. From what I can tell you are young, skilled and take your responsibilities rather seriously if your father is willing to turn his castle over to you" Duncan added "a trait I rarely see in people as young as you" Aedan had to admit that he was rather honoured by how well Duncan seemed to speak of him "The Grey Wardens do not recruit simply anybody, and I intend no flattery when I say you show promise"

The more Duncan spoke of it the more Aedan was becoming rather fond of becoming a Grey Warden. The idea of going out and seeing more of Thedas and vanquishing darkspawn whilst he was at it. It certainly did have a certain appeal to a young man such as himself.

"Due to the old treaties I could conscript you even against your father's wishes, but I wil not do so" Duncan glanced at Bryce, the elder Cousland could tell when his young son was interested in something and while he had the utmost respect for the Grey Wardens he still didn't wish to risk losing both of his son's in combat. In truth he wished even Fergus wasn't heading to Ostagar but his eldest was old enough to make his own descions and so too was Aedan and while Bryce knew he couldn't coddle them forever he still would rather wish that he still had one son safely residing in his family castle. "Our order is too few to risk animosity with Fereldan's nobility" Duncan assured.

"And glad I am to hear it" Bryce interrupted.

"It's tempting, your Lordship" Duncan admitted "But I am content to see what other candidates your castle offers"

Bryce nodded and his youngest son left the hall in order to find his older brother. He wouldn't have much time to talk to Fergus and Aedan had to capitalize on the brief moment Fergus was in their family's castle.

"Soldier, show Duncan and his two companion's to the guest room's" Bryce ordered one of the nearby men.

"Yes, my Lord" the soldier turned to Duncan, Daylen and Fridya "follow me, ser's"

Soon Duncan, Daylen and Fridya found themselves led to the guest wing of the Cousland estate. Stepping through the door to her chambers, Fridya was struck by the rather unfamiliar sight of that of a rather lavish and exquisite room. Wall's were decorated with priceless works of art, the heraldry of the Cousland family hung above the four-poster bed complete with satin sheet's. A weapon and armor stand was placed just to the side of the nightstand on the right side of the bed. A highly furnished wooden desk and chair sat next to a single bookcase which held a large array of reading materials related to Fereldan and all its animal life, religion's and history.

The Nord hadn't seen a room this type of luxurious living quarters since she had spent her most recent stay in her house; Proudspire Manor in Solitude. She rarely spent any time in Solitude as the last time she could remember spending anytime there had been at least two seasons ago. She had grown used to the rather simple accommodations she had access to in the other eight hold's of Skyrim.

Moving towards the bookcase and desk, Fridya set the Ice Blade of the Monarch greatsword against the nearby wall and browsed the bookcase for any relevant books to suit her needs. If she was going to pose as an Avvar which was it that Daylen referred to her as? Then she needed to educate herself on the basics of Fereldan and its people.

Eventually she had come across a rather large book named A Brief History of Fereldan. "Perfect" Fridya smiled, hopefully the book would be able to educate her on the basics of Fereldan.

Sitting on the chair by the desk Fridya opened the book and began reading.

As she read the more she learned of the history of Fereldan, both of the war's fought in the past and of their religion; the Chantry. She learned of what the Fereldan's called the neighbouring region of Orlais and their invasion of Fereldan, a certain name that stood out, Rendon Howe. The same Rendon Howe from earlier seen talking to Bryce Cousland the same man that she was rather uncertain about. Apparently the man had fought beside someone named Teyrn Loghain along with one of Fereldan's King; Maric to drive the Orlesian invader's out of Fereldan.

As she read further she read up on the basics of the main religion of Fereldan known as The Chantry. She'd gotten a basic teaching of it from the young mage Daylen earlier on but due to his imprisonment in the Circle tower it had been a rather hateful speech against them. As it turned out the more she read of the Chantries history then the more she sympathized with the young mage. After retrieving a smiliar book to the book about Fereldan's history which instead explained the history of the Chantry and those known as Andraste and The Maker the more Fridya began sympathizing with the young Daylen. The part of the Chantries history that was the final blow in their coffin of Fridya's disdain of them was after coming across the history of the Exalted March of the Dales. This Chantry much to Fridya's disgust had butchered and wiped out nearly the entirety of the Dalish elves which she had come to find out more information about. All over the trivial case of the race of elves refusing to worship The Maker. As she got to the end of the book the more and more The Chantry began sounding like the Aldmerri Dominion and Thalmor.

After putting the book of what Fridya considered to be the Aldmerri Dominion of Thedas away in the bookcase she searched as hard as she could for a book containing any information about who these Avvar were supposed to be. Unfortunately it seemed either not much was known about them or the citizen's of Fereldan outright refused to record any knowledge of them. This certainly wasn't ideal for the Nord masquerading as one.

* * *

How many hours passed as Fridya attempted to read as many of the book's as she could she didn't know, she was no scholar. Like many of her kind she preferred fighting and dungeon delving to that of studying books. It seemed like many hour's had passed and she hadn't even read ¼ of the book's in the bookcase. No doubt if her room was similar to Daylen's then she knew that the young mage had probably read every book in his bookcase twice over already.

The more she read the more she grew bored. Fridya had learned enough of the basics of Fereldan that she considered herself to be sufficiently educated in the ways of Fereldan and its people which would hopefully ensure nobody noticed her deception. She just hoped that nobody asked her to further elaborate on the so called 'Avvar' that she was claiming to be.

After putting the last book she read back in the bookcase Fridya whipped her head towards her door and saw two men burst through it; one of them in heavy armor wielding a sword and shield and the other in light leather armor wielding a crossbow. Each of the men bore the sigil of an orange and white shield background with a bear in the foreground.

Their intentions were clear as Fridya had noticed the man in heavy armor had quickly adopted himself into a combat stance and the crossbow wielding man had his crossbow aimed squarely in her direction...


	4. Betrayal

Hrnghh" the sound of the last remaining Howe guard gurgled as he dropped to the floor, his heavy armour would've made a loud clanking noise were it not for the solid block of freezing cold ice that encased his body who hadn't been able to put up much of a fight in the enclosed space of the Nord Dragonborn's chamber's, a crossbow wasn't exactly the ideal weapon to use against a foe wielding two axe's made of dragonbone and a greatsword that had a chance to freeze an opponent solid and leave them defensless in mere seconds.

Fridya raised the enchanted greatsword above her head before swinging it down at the frozen Howe guard resulting in the guards body shattering into tiny shards of ice, nothing remaining of him except a puddle f blood where his body used to be. A grim and violent death for anyone.

"AAAAHH!" a bloodcurdling scream could be heard coming from outside Fridya's room causing the Nord to step out and saw a man run out of a room adjacent to hers, judging by his armor it looked identical to the one who she had just put down except instead of receiving a quick death, the heavily armoured Howe guard was encased in a ball of flames and the flesh on his face was rapidly beginning to burn away as he tried in desperation to extinguish the fire with his gauntlet's.

"Just hurry up and die, already!" Fridya heard the exasperated voice of the Warden recruit, Daylen as the young mage walked out of his room and cast his fingers outwards and bombarded the enflamed guard with sparks of electricity until finally the guard dropped to the floor. His screams falling silent.

"You too huh?" Daylen asked as he turned to Fridya and leant to the side slightly to see no dead bodies but large pool's of blood and shards of ice scattered across the ground and with Fridya alive and seemingly unhurt it didn't take a scholar to put two and two together. "You seen Duncan?"

Fridya shook her head "no, you?" only to receive the same shake of the head. "What in oblivion is going on?" screams could be heard throughout the Cousland's estate and the sounds of battle, something that Fridya was all too familiar with.

"Nope, I'm just as lost as you" Daylen replied, a little confused. He'd been getting ready for bed only for the guard he had just finished burning to a crisp to barge into his room and attempt to kill him. Clearly the guard hadn't expected to be facing a mage. "I'd say we should probably look for Duncan, he might know" Daylen said rather unsure, he'd barely spent much time out of the Circle and so he had no idea how a lot of the outside world worked.

"That...could work" Fridya said, stroking her chin. "You search those room's, I'll do the same here" Fridya pointed to the other room's to which she received a nod and both she and Daylen began searching each of the room's to which they were completely empty and as they got to the final one's on each side Duncan was in neither of them.

"No luck?!" Daylen called over to Fridya as she finished scanning the last room for any signs of the elder Grey Warden. None to be found. It was as if he barely spent any time in his room. Just what he could be doing in the Cousland's castle she didn't know but it was certainly getting rather late and as the scream's and sounds of battle permeated through the castle she had to wonder where he had gotten to?

"For Arl Howe!" Fridya and Daylen turned their attention to a large group of the traitororous Teyrn's soldier's who charged at them from the end of the corridor of the guest wing. Putting their search for Duncan on hold, the young mage and Nord warrior faced the group which consisted of three men dressed in the standard splintmail armour attire for guard's and armed with sword's shield's and two knights who were encased in heavy grey iron suits of armour with one of them wielding a large warhammer and the other wielding a greatsword.

Fridya casted a sidelong glance at Daylen who had already begun preparing a spell and smirked at the young mage and the group of Howe's men soon found themselves facing a fireball sailing towards them at high speed. Mage's were incredibly dangerous and the three men in standard armour jumped out of the way to avoid being incinerated, the two knights simply shrugged off the incendiary attack as if it was nothing.

Fridya knew she needed to act fast and stop the guard's from getting in close to Daylen, he'd be cut to ribbon's if they did. She let out a war cry and charged towards the group of Howe's men fully intent on taking out the three of Howe's lowly grunts before moving onto the two knights who thanks to their heavy armor she would have a much easier job of predicting their moves.

Fridya was soon in the thick of it and as one of the three splintmail-armored guard's was getting up after throwing himself off to the side to avoid the fireball he was unable to get back on his feet on account of a light blue blade impaling him, penetrating his armour like it was nothing. Suffering the same fate as his comrade before he soon found his body encased head to toe in a block of ice after Fridya's enchanted greatsword cut his exposed arm only to be turned into multiple shards of ice and a large pool of his blood quickly splattered the ground as the blade soon impaled him upon it.

With the combined might of the Nordic warrior and young mage, the two made short work of Howe's men as they proceeded through Castle Coousland in an attempt to locate the source of this madness and if possible find Duncan. Something that was easier said than done as they made their way through the large castle of one of Fereldan's most influential noble families. It seemed everywhere they entered, Daylen and Fridya would find themselves coming across more bedroom's. Fridya was surprised at the lack of reactions from the young mage as he saw her greatsword reduce the incoming guards into blocks of ice but then again he was a mage and she imagined enchanted weapons were not exactly new to him. She had no knowledge of enchantments but she certainly wouldnt turn an enchanted weapon away after getting her hands on one. Though none of the enchanted weapons she had in her possesion prior to the Ice Blade of the Monarch matched up to the enchanted blade seemingly made out of pure ice.

* * *

"Oh maker!" the noblewoman Lady Landra gasped in pleasure as she felt the young Aedan Cousland's manhood exploded inside her womb. The young charming noble hadn't needed to say much in order to get her into bed. His roguish charm and well-toned muscular body was too much for Landra to ignore who had quickly joined Aedan in his bedchamber to make good on all that drunken flirting she had inflicted on him.

"Hnngh, fuck" Aedan groaned as he felt the older woman's inner muscle's clamp down around his spasming manhood. The well-travelled spear between Aedan's leg's had finally claimed Lady Landra, the wife of Bann Loren as its latest; of which there were many sexual conquest's. Each time it throbbed it sent more of his release into Landra's womb. For a woman of her age she was surprisingly tight. Clealy Bann Loren hadn't been paying as much attention to his wife as he should of been.

Landra, out of breath soon landed on Aedan's toned naked chest. "Maker, why haven't we done this sooner?" she questioned. Aedan had made her feel at least twenty year's younger after their heated passionate coupling.

"Better late than never, eh?" Aedan chuckled softly as Landra's head rest in the crook of his neck.

"Woof woof! Woo.." Aedan heard the sound of his mabari barking outside his room. Rather frantically if he might add.

"Maker's breath!" what's he making all that racket for?" Landra asked as she got off Aedan's naked form and wrapped the bedsheets around her nude body as she walked towards the door. Aedan's mabari had suddenly stopped its barking. It was rather late at night and Aedan had sent his mabari out to wait in the hallway as he and the older noblewoman got down to business.

Suddenly the door to Aedan's room was barged open and before Landra could react she suddenly found a duo of crossbow bolts lodged into her stomach. That was it for the noblewoman and the silver haired Landra dropped to the floor, the life in her eyes gone.

Aedan had to act quickly to which he did indeed and reached under his bed pillow to quickly grab his longsword and charged at the crossbow-wielding guard as he hurriedly attempted to reload the device in an attempt to take out the rapidly approaching naked Cousland.

He wasn't able to reload in time as Aedan's muscular frame barrelled into him, the guard's leather armor softening the blow to the nude angry Cousland and acting quickly, Aedan quickly brought his longsword up and slashed it across the guard's throat causing him to clutch at his throat in an attempt to halt the rapidly escaping blood but ultimately failing.

"I'm so sorry, Landra" Aedan said, sorrowfully as a deep patch of crimson could be seen through Landra's thinly covered form. The life had long left her and Aedan hoped she was resting peacefully with the Maker now, if he was even real.

One thing was for sure, he could hear screams and the sounds of battle echoing through his family's home. He needed to find his parents and find out what in the Maker's name was going on?

With his finely crafted silverite massive heavy armour equipped; crafted by the most skilled blacksmith Highever had to offer along with his kite shield with the Cousland family heraldry engraved upon the tough gleaming silver metal surface Aedan was ready to discover who was causing this unprovoked attack on his family?

But first he needed to check something and looking around outside his room's door he found his answer in that of a slumped down mabari warhound, unmoving. "No, no, no" Aedan babbled hopelessly as he ran over to his fallen mabari warhound Dane. The canine creature had three crossbow bolt's sticking out of its flank and deep cuts and gashes could be seen pockmarked all over the furry creature. Mabari were tough but with the amount of wounds Dane had suffered there was no way he could survive this. Aedan clenched his fist in anger, why? Why did he have to choose to bed Lady Landra and doom his beloved pet?

"Son, thank the Maker you're all right" Aedan snapped his head up to see his mother; equipped in her armor, longbow strapped to her back along with a full quiver of arrows running towards her grieving son as he held his deceased mabari in his arms "Aedan, I'm so sorry" the elder Cousland said sympathetically as she saw tear's begin to well up in her sons eye's "we need to find your father!" she urged.

"He isn't with you?" Aedan said, confused as he looked up from his deceased mabari.

Eleanor shook her head "no, he never came to bed" she looked around, the hallway she and her son were in were littered by the bodies of the Cousland estate's guard's and Howe's men, the ones instigating the unprovoked attack. "Did you see their shields? Those are Howe's men!"

Aedan finally began taking notice of his surroundings and noticed the many bodies of his family's guards and the slain bodies many of which had guard's with shields that were emblazoned with the sigil of a brown bear foreground and yellow and white shielded background. "I knew it, he plans to attack us while most of our forces are at Ostagar!" Aedan declared. There was always something fishy he found about Rendon Howe. Betrayal, he wouldn't put it past him.

"Y..you don't think his men were delayed, on purpose?" Eleanor wondered "that bastard!" she sneered "I'll cut his lying tongue out myself!" he never saw his mother angry that much but the look in her eyes made Aedan sure that his mother was imagining a few less than savoury deaths for who used to be considered their family's old friend.

"What about that Grey Warden, Duncan was it? And the others?" Aedan questioned, Duncan had come to recruit Ser Gilmore into the Grey Warden order but this unprovoked attack, where was the bearded Grey Warden amongst this?

"You don't, don't think he's working with Howe do you?" Aedan's mother pondered.

"No, no I don't actually" Aedan said, shaking his head "Grey Wardens don't involve themselves in politics, right?"

Eleanor still looked a little unsure "hmm, I guess" she relented before her eye's shot up "what if Howe's men got into your brother's room first?" she was already up on her feet and running towards her eldest son's room, fearful of the worst with Aedan quickly following behind her, reluctantly leaving his deceased mabari.

Son and mother quickly made their way to Fergus's room, a few Howe guards accosted them on the way but with the combined effort of Aedan keeping the guards busy at close range while his mother dispatched them at range, easily finding weak spots in their armour causing the dup to cut through Howe's men with ease on the way to Fergus's room. Fergus had no doubt left for Ostagar by now and as a result Oriana and Oren would be defensless.

Aedan roughly pushed the door to his brother's room open only to be greeted with the sight he was dreading. Both Oriana and Oren; a little wooden sword in his hand lay dead on the floor, a significant trail of blood streaked across the room as it gushed out of the young child and Antivan woman.

"No!" Eleanor cried in despair as she dropped to her knees alongside her son's deceased wife and son "what manner of fiend slaughters innocents?" the silver haired Cousland said, aghast.

Rage filled Aedan as he looked at the bodies of his brother's most cherished loved ones "I'm going to rip Howe's head off and piss on his corpse" he growled through clenched teeth. Weak and pathetic, killing defenceless women and children proed that Howe and his ilk were complete and utter tyrannical coward's.

"Howe isn't even taking hostages!" Eleanor noted "he means to kill all of us!" the elder Cousland reached forward and closed Oren and Oriana's eye's "let's go, I don't want to see this" Aedan could tell his mother was trying to hold in her tear's.

"We need to find father!" Aedan said, hurriedly. If Oriana and Oren were dead then he needed to get to him before Howe did. Hopefully they would run into Howe before reaching his father and Aedan could show the scumbag exactly what he did to those who betrayed his family.

"Can you hear the fighting? Howe's men must be everywhere" Eleanor said to her youngest son as she finally worked up the willpower to put aside her grief of Oren and Oriana's demise and replaced it with sheer determination. Screams and the sounds of steel clashing against steel echoed throughout Castle Cousland. "The servants passage leads out from the larger, but we must find your father first"

"Where, though?" Aedan asked, confused.

Eleanor scratched her chin in contemplation "the front gates. That's where your father must be."

"What about that Grey Warden, Duncan and the two companions of his?" Aedan asked, curiously "could they help us? Where are they?"

"Maybe" Eleanor thought "I believe your father set them up with room's further up in the guest quarters"

"Perhaps we could go see if we can get them to help us?" Aedan suggested, he hoped they weren't in on Howe's attack too, then again Grey Warden's were supposed to remain neutral in political affairs so they probably didn't.

"It shouldn't be too far ahead" Eleanor nodded as she and Aedan made their way up the adjacent corridor towards the guest quarters.

Upon entering the guest quarters, Aedan and his mother already saw the corridor outside the guest rooms were filled with many dead bodies of Howe's men; some were simply lying motionless on the ground, others were lying on the ground with their entire bodied charred and blackened with what looked like the results of being engulfed in flames and then there were those who had varying limb's such as their arm's head's or leg's cut off along with large pools of blood with shard's of ice lying amongst the crimson pools of blood.

Standing amongst them Aedan saw the two companions that he saw accompanying the Grey Warden, Duncan earlier in the day. The female who was currently wiping a significant amount of blood off her greatsword blade on the leather armour of a fallen Howe soldier. No doubt she was the one responsible for the varying limbless Howe guards. Maybe the mage was responsible for the random shards of ice lying amongst the pools of blood.

And then there was the young Circle mage who was just finished burning the final Howe guard alive which was accentuated by the Howe guard screaming in pain as his flesh burned by a steady stream of flame escaping Daylen's fingertips. It confirmed Aedan's suspicions that he was the one who turned the Howe soldiers into heavily burned and charred corpses.

"Hey, whats going on here?, err..." the young mage asked as his gaze came into contact with Aedan and Eleanor. "I was rather enjoying my rest" he huffed.

"Howe betrayed my family!" Aedan growled as the greatsword-wielding female warrior finished wiping the blood off her blade "remind me who you two were again? You were with Duncan, right? Where is he?"

"Daylen; of the Fereldan Circle Tower prison" Daylen said, a slight tone of hatred as he mentioned the Circle, the prison that he was trapped in the majority of his life.

"Fridya, an Avvar" the armoured greatsword-wielding woman simply grunted, simply causing Aedan to raise a brow, surprised. Rather intrigued due to neer meeting one of the Frostback Mountain-dwelling folks.

"Where is Ser Duncan" Eleanor asked

"That's what we're trying to figure out" Daylen said. "He's not in his room"

"Great" Aedan groaned "any chance you two can help me and my mother get to my father? Safety in numbers, right?"

Fridya shrugged "might as well. Not exactly like we're doing much now anyway"

* * *

As the four fighters made easy work cutting through Howe's men Fridya couldn't help but marvel at how easily the young Aedan Cousland's mother dropped Howe's men with her bow; it was almost as if she was looking into the future as to what Aela would be like when she began getting on in year's. The bow and crossbow wielding invading soldier's found themselves unable to stand against Eleanor's almost eagle-like gaze. Despite her age Eleanor found weaknesses in Howe's men's armor as easily as someone half her age and just as easily as Aela could.

"The Treasury!" Aedan exclaimed "we can't let Howe get his hands on our wealth!" he had no doubt going after his family's wealth was a major reason he decided to attack. Howe was an ambitious and jealous man, adding his family's wealth to his own would no doubt be one of the first things the traitorous bastard intended on doing.

"I've got the key" Eleanor informed "hopefully we'll need it and Howe's men haven't got through" Aedan's mother said, hopefully. The cynical part of her had the sneaking suspicion that Howe's men would already be pillaging her family's riches. Something that she refused to allow happening.

Aedan, Eleanor, Daylen and Fridya fought through Howe's men as they made their way towards the Cousland family's treasury, Aedan seemed to be fighting a little more aggressively and furiously as he led the way, he never did like Howe in all honesty and the idea of him getting access to wealth that didn't belong to him in the first place filled him with rage. He had no idea how large the Howe family's wealth was but there was no way he had any intention of allowing Rendon Howe to add to his own wealth with the Cousland family's wealth.

"Fuck!" Aedan cursed as he saw the door leading into the Cousland family's treasury was already opened. Thankfully however as the four entered into the room that led to the treasury there was a heavily armoured Howe knight with a helmet covering his entire face attempting to smash the large reinforced metal door down with a large warhammer as two Howe guard's wielding sword's and shields stood either side of the heavily armoured knight showing that Howe's men hadn't reached the inside of the Cousland treasury yet.

"Get the fuck away from there!" Aedan snarled, surprising the three of Howe's men as he charged at one of the two guard's standing next to the knight and slammed his shield into the guard using the whole force of his body slamming into the guard to knock him back into the wall. The guard's helmet protected his head from being cracked open as it hit the wall which was enough for the other guard and the knight to retaliate. The Howe family knight halted his assault on the treasury door and turned to Eleanor, Daylen and Fridya as the guard who had been attacked by Aedan was busy engaging the agitated young noble in a fight.

"I can handle the tin can" Daylen smirked and brought his hand's up and a swirling ball of flaming hot energy appeared in the Circle mage's hand's which quickly evolved into two large fireball's and with outstretched hand's he directed the two flaming projectiles at the heavily armed warhammer-wielding knight which caused him to attempt to dive out of the way of the conjured fireball's and while he narrowly avoided being struck by one of them which flew past his helmeted head and impacted harmlessly on the reinforced treasury door, however he wasn't lucky enough with the second one as the flame projectile slammed into his left pauldron and began slowly singing its way through the armour and into his flesh.

Fridya readied the Ice Blade and charged at the Howe guard who wasn't currently engaged in combat and the enchanted blade, cut through the Howe guard's armour like butter and impaled him through the chest causing blood to splutter out of his mouth and when Fridya removed her blade from the Howe guard's it caused his body to slump to the floor. His instant death was quick which caused the Ice Blade's enchantment to not take effect and he was one of the lucky few to not have his body reduced to tiny shards of ice.

Eleanor meanwhile was helping the young mage by peppering the heavily armoured warhammer wielding knight currently engaging in combat with Daylen, trying to find weaknesses in the knight's armor which was rather difficult, however with his heavy armour and large warhammer caused the knight to be rather slow which allowed both Eleanor and Daylen to use his slow speed to their advantage. Daylen threw a great many fireball's in the knight's direction in an attempt to eventually burn the knights armor away or possibly make it fuse into his skin and cause a catastrophic amount of pain.

Eventually the four were victorious and the Howe family knight and two guards were slumped down on the floor dead, the knight's heavy armour was practically burned into his scarred flesh thanks to the flurry of fireball's that had never stopped assaulting his slow and lumbering form. No matter how heavy the armour it still failed under duress when unable to dodge projectile fireballs.

Eleanor walked up to the door to the Cousland treasury and unlocked it with the key and Fridya saw the look of relief creep onto the silver-haired and young Cousland's face's. The Cousland treasury looked relatively untouched, the heavy door leading to the family's wealth did a well enough job to keep the thousands of sovereign's all kept safely secured in locked chests away from the traitorous Howe's hand's.

"It's all here by the looks of it" Eleanor said as she crouched down and inserted the armoury key into one of the locks on the chest and sure enough she saw the numerous amounts of golden coin's arranged into multiple row's of stack's of sovereign's reaching up to the roof of the chest.

"Are we seriously going to leave it all here for Howe to take, mother?" Aedan questioned as he looked around the room that held his family's wealth "I mean I know these chests are pretty securely locked but do you honestly think that it'll stop that bastard from finding a way to get his greedy hands on _our_ coin?" Aedan was wracking his brain trying to figure out how it would be possible to get all of the chests of sovreign's out and away from Howe's hands. He was strong, yes but even he knew that he wouldn't be strong enough to carry every chest away with his mother and father to keep it from Howe.

"I believe I could help with that" Fridya spoke up as she watched the two Cousland's worrying over their families wealth. She usually hated people who placed gold and materialistic things above other things such as honour and tradition or family much like that irritating Nazzem who she had lost count of how many times she wanted to punch or those pathetic excuses of a Nord, Olfrid Battle-Born and the ex-Jarl of Falreath, Siddgeir but after witnessing how quickly Howe, a person she hadn't had much interaction with since arriving at Castle Cousland was willing to betray the Cousland family she was willing to give Aedan's family the benefit of the doubt.

"How?" Eleanor asked both curiously and slightly suspiciously "furthermore, why? You've barely been here for more than a day"

"Does it matter?" Fridya shrugged. "I can get all of your wealth out of here and store it in a safe place until you choose to retrieve it again. The question is do you trust me enough to go through with this?"

Aedan and Eleanor both looked at each other, unsure of whether to trust the young warrior or not?


	5. Fight or Flight

**A/N: I apologize for the long wait, I've been suffering from a mild case of Skyrim mod overdose as I recently got a gaming laptop and installed enough mods that I got the infamous bouncy cart glitch at the start of the game. I'm sure some of you will recognize some of the mods in this story and I also did some re-writing of the story so if u wanna read from the beginning again you'll notice some changes to fit the mods in, nothing too major of a re-write tho.**

Fridya clenched her gauntleted hand as a swirling aura of purplish mist seemed to envelop it and along her gauntleted hand up to the small dragonbone crafted dragon head replica's that decorated her two gauntlet's only for it to dissipate after the Nord held out her hand outstretched where the purple glow dissipated.

A swirling vortex of the same purplish energy that had surrounded Fridya's gauntleted hand materialized in the middle of the Cousland treasury before a being dressed in extravagant burgundy finery appeared out of the vortex, the majority of him looking rather normal with the exception of the jet-black head, intimidating red war marking's that covered nearly half of the being's face and lastly the large demonic horn's that sprouted from the new arrival's head; Fridya's dremora butler. She hated the daedra but she had to admit that he did come in useful at times.

"More cup's and plate's for me to carry?" the dremora's insidious voice said in an almost sarcastic tone as he looked at his Nord master.

"You're a bloodmage?!" Fridya heard Aedan's mother say in concern who was now looking at the Dragonborn warily. Eleanor still had a grip on her bow but wasn't aiming it in Fridya's direction but she knew how one acted when about to enter a fight and as Fridya watched Eleanor she could see the elder Cousland was very close to drawing an arrow and firing it in her direction.

"No!" Fridya said firmly, a little annoyed at being accused of being a mage; the type of people that like many of her kind didn't exactly have a large trust in. She had no idea what a bloodmage was but with the title of 'blood' in front of the term of mage then she hat to hazard a guess that it wasn't exactly good, especially after the suspicious tone from Eleanor along with Aedan who was facing her and eyeing what she would do next warily, his gaze shifting back and forth between her and her demonic servant.

"But you just..." Daylen said a little confused, the entire time up to this point it was clear that Fridya was a warrior, not a mage. He preffered using spells to kill people at range whereas as she was the one chagrining into the thick of things chopping off limbs and freezing opponents solid with her enchanted blade. There was no way what Fridya had just summoned would be looked upon favourably be the Chantry which was making him want to ask Fridya how to learn such a spell.

"Look" Fridya said as she eyed each of the occupants in the treasury "right now he" she pointed at the dremora servant she had acquired in Apocrypha; one of the very few good things to come from that Talos-forsaken place "is the only way you can get all of your wealth out of here and deny Howe from getting his hands on it"

"I live to serve" the servant drawled in the typical sarcastic manner that Fridya had grown used to from the dremora servant of hers. He was useful, even if he did have a voice that got on her nerves at times.

"How?" Aedan asked rather skeptically.

"Well that depends on how much do you trust me?" the Nord asked "I can have him store all your riches away safely and whenever you feel like seeing it again then I can summon him again and you can take it back" she could see that Aedan and his mother were looking at her servant rather concerned. She wondered how they'd react to seeing a proper dremora; jet-black heavy armor and everything.

"I trust you" Eleanor said "you've given us no reason to distrust you so far" she eyed the dremora "though...that shakes it a little. I hope you understand"

Fridya nodded "I do, it's not every day you see someone or something like this" she said as she watched the dremora servant's demonic breathing as he stood with his arms crossed waiting for his next command "how much gold do you have here?"

"Don't you mean, sovereign's?" Aedan asked, eyebrow arched as he corrected the newcomer on the proper term used for the currency of Thedas.

"Oh, err yes, of coarse!" Fridya said quickly, she needed to get to know the terminology of this land if she was going to keep up her cover story of being from the Avvar "my people just refer to them as gold is all"

"Fair enough" Aedan shrugged "anyway, all of these chests are full of sovereign's" he gestured around the room to where there were at least ten chests brimming with sovereign's "Though my parents never tell me how much coin we actually have" he said glancing at his mother.

Eleanor sighed "I guess there is no point hiding it now. It is at least 200'000 sovereign's last time your father and I checked"

"Bloody hell!" Daylen said, amazed.

"Hmm, now I see why Howe is after it" Aedan said, rather happy he finally learned of how much coin their family had. "Anyway, I think we better hurry up and see how that thing can help get our riches out of here"

"Simple" Fridya said as she looked around at the varying chests full of the Cousland family's wealth "get each of these chests and line them each up next to each other in the centre of the room. I can help if you wish"

"Okay then" Eleanor said and she and her son grabbed a hold of the first large chest of sovreign's and between the two of them they started shuffling the chest across the floor to the middle of the reasury and after placing it there then mother and son went to grab another chest to shuffle towards the centre of the room.

Fridya had taken it upon herself to help the young but rather non-physically fit mage Daylen to do the same with the other chests of sovreign's though more accurately it was her doing most of the heavy lifting whereas Daylen was simply trying to help even without his lack of physical strength it was still a noble effort. Mages weren't exactly known for physical strength after all.

It took a little while which annoyed Aedan and Eleanor due to them not knowing what state Bryce was in but the simple fact was that they couldn't allow that traitorous backstabber Arl Howe to get his greedy hands on coin that did not belong to him but eventually all of the chests containing the Cousland family's sovereign's were placed side by side.

"Now, summon me a chest that will be able to hold all these ones inside it" Fridya ordered her dremora servant to which he just let out a breathy sigh and with a flick of his hand a chest that looked exactly like the chests she often found at the edges of Nordic burial crypts appeared on the ground next to the dremora's feet, although the big difference between this chest was that it was an awful lot wider than the average treasure chests. The chests containing the Cousland's family's wealth were thankfully not as big as the treasure chests back in Skyrim but due to the immense amount of sovereign's in each caused the chests to nearly weigh as much as the average treasure chest in Skyrim did.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Fridya questioned "start putting the chests in there" she gestured to the magically altered Nordic-style treasure chest. After a brief glance at each other, both Aedan and Eleanor began loading up the chests full of their family's wealth into the magically enlarged summoned treasure chest.

"Is that everything?" Fridya said after Aedan and Eleanor had finished dropping the final chest into the summoned magically enlarged chest. Te room looked rather bare now with the chests carrying the sovreign's all loaded up and ready to be safely stored away in the realm of Oblivion somewhere.

"I think so" Aedan nodded. He looked at the plaque on the wall where the Cousland family sword and shield used to hang which was now empty though only due to the fact that Aedan knew that being the eldest child his brother Fergus was given them to use when he departed for Ostagar. Thankfully Howe wouldn't get his hands on the Cousland family sword and shield and now so long as Fridya kept her word then Howe wouldn't get his hands on his family's wealth either.

* * *

"Go! Man the gates! Keep those bastards out as long as you can!"

"Ser Gilmore! Thank the Maker you yet live alive" Eleanor said as she, Aedan, Daylen and Fridya entered the great hall of Castle Cousland. The tables that once lined the hall were now propped up against the main door leading into Castle Cousland along with guards holding against the constant pounding of whatever was attempting to knock the down from the other side.

"Your Ladyship, my Lord! Thank the Maker you're alive" the red-haired knight said, relieved "I was certain Howe's men had gotten through"

"They did get through!" Aedan growled. "where is my father?" he asked urgently.

"When I last saw Teyrn Cousland he had been badly wounded, he managed to fight off a few of Howe's men but I'm not sure what his condition is now" Ser Gilmore informed "I kept urging him not to go but he was determined to find you"

"Then where is he?" Eleanor asked, heart racing in worry at the fate of her husband.

"He was heading to the kitchen the last time I saw him. I believe he thought to find you at the servants exit in the larder"

"Bless you Ser Gilmore" Eleanor said thankfully "Maker watch over you"

"Maker watch over us all" the knight said sadly, accepting that his death would come soon and went to join his men in barring the large door and fending off Howe's men to give his Teyrn and Teyrna and young Lord Cousland enough time to escape.

"I'm going to fucking KILL Howe!" Aedan snarled as he, his mother and Daylen and Fridya battled their way through his family's castle as quickly as possible in order to reach his father. No doubt that ambitious cunt, Howe wanted Bryce dead just like the rest of the occupants of his family's home. Aedan knew that his father knew his way around a sword but with Bryce's age as it was he wondered just how much it had hampered his ability to fight, then again was his father even armed? If Bryce was more concerned at finding him then part of the young Cousland started to worry.

"We will, son" Eleanor reassured her son as soon as she had let an arrow fly straight into the eye of a Howe soldier that was lucky enough to of not been burnt to a crisp by Daylen or have one of his limbs cleaved off or frozen solid by the ferocious Nordic pale-skinned Fridya who was making short work of the Howe soldiers alongside Daylen who was causing a numerable amount of painful and agonizing deaths for Howe's men. The sounds of pained screaming escaped their throats as they were burnt alive or were assaulted by numerous bolts of equally painful lightning bolts.

"Fucking cunts" Aedan spat as he quickly decapitated a Howe soldier who had staggered backwards and backed into a wall after being slammed into at full force by the youngest Cousland decked out in a set of heavy plate armor which proved too much of an impact and as a result the Howe soldier who was wearing standard splintmail armor had a few of his ribs broken, something that didn't matter due to his body being missing a head moments later.

"Think your father is still alive?" Daylen asked respectfully as the latest stream of concentrated fire shot from his fingers making the Howe soldier in front of him flail and scream in pain as he was burnt alive just like many of his fellow soldiers had done so before.

"He better be" Aedan said staunchly although there was a slight undertone of doubt in his voice, he had lost track of how many Howe guards were in the path of the kitchen to where his father apparently was, his father was a capable fighter back in the day even fighting against the Orlesians who tried invading Fereldan but now, Aedan had rarely ever seen his father wearing armor of any kind in the past ten years or so. Aedan slammed his shield into the face of another Howe guard as dread began to seep into his thoughts before the young Cousland quickly thrust his sword through the Howe soldier's throat.

As she was busy cutting down Howe soldiers, Fridya had her doubts that Bryce Cousland would still be alive, she would never say so to Aedan's face especially right now due to the young Cousland's home being invaded by a greedy and overly ambitions rival noble which in all honesty the young Nord wasn't surprised at; she hated nobility with a passion, no honour and greedy until their dying day; Olfrid Battle-Born, Erikur and Siddgeir were more than enough proof of such a fact.

"We're close, just a bit further" Eleanor said hurriedly as she caused the death of yet another Howe guard courtesy of her bow.

* * *

"There you both are" a strained voice groaned out as the group entered the larder. "I was..wondering if you'd make it in time"

"Bryce!" Eleanor gasped as she ran towards where her husband was barely clinging onto life as he crawled on the ground "Maker's breath! You're bleeding!"

"Howe's men" Bryce groaned, the wound in his chest growing more and more painful each time he tried to breathe "found me first, almost did me in right there"

"Father, we need to get you out of here. Howe's men likely are heading this way very soon!" Aedan urged.

"I can't, I'm no longer in my prime, like you, son" Bryce said "I know when my time is up"

"You" Aedan said as he fixed his gaze on the mage Grey Warden recruit, Daylen "you're a mage, heal him!" Aedan all but demanded as he gestured towards his bleeding out father.

"I'm sorry, but I never trained in the healing arts" Daylen said genuinely

"You can at least try!" Aedan said, desperately.

"Pup, hush. Nothing can save me now" Bryce said soothingly as he gritted his teeth from the pain.

"Once Howe's men break through the main gate they will find us!" Eleanor said, looking at her dying husband in desperation "we must go"

"Fergus, someone must reach Fergus and tell him...what has happened" Bryce stated as more and more of his blood decorated the floor beneath him

"You can tell him yourself, father" Aedan said adamantly

A slight chuckle escaped Bryce's throat before he groaned in pain again "I...I wish I could"

Fridya watched the exchange between Aedan and his mother and dying father. The entire time she was thinking back to the last time she saw her parents, back before they were butchered by the Thalmor, back before the time she had found her way into Skyrim and began her destiny as the Dragonborn. As much as she missed them she knew that she would see them again; a brief re-union between her parents when she travelled to Sovengarde to slay Alduin once and for all saw to that.

"I'm afraid the Teyrn is correct" the voice of Duncan brought Fridya out of her memory of the last time she'd been with her parents as the elder Grey Warden sheathed his swords, both of which were stained with what was presumably the blood of Howe's men upon them. "Howe's men have not yet discovered this exit, but they surround the castle. Getting past will be difficult"

"You are Duncan? The Grey Warden I heard was visiting?" Eleanor asked, her hand firmly wrapped around that of her dying husband's.

"Yes, your Ladyship" Duncan said, courteously "The Teyrn and I tried to reach you sooner"

"My son and your companions helped me get here, Maker be praised"

"I am not surprised" Duncan said, a tone of approval clear in his voice.

"Duncan, can you do something about Howe? His men? You're more experienced than any of us" Aedan pleaded.

"Not here" Duncan said regretfully "there are too many men, and they seem as willing to kill me as they are all of you" Duncan sighed "I am sorry, but fleeing is the only option"

"Whatever is to be done now it must be quick!" Eleanor urged as the sounds of fighting grew closer "they are coming!"

Bryce looked up at Duncan, the Teyrn's mouth dripping with coughed up blood "Duncan, I am not long for this world but please, my family has always been a friend to the Grey Wardens; take my wife and son to safety. I beg you"

"I will, your Lordship" Duncan replied, it wasn't his first visit to Castle Cousland and Bryce had always been courteous to him and his fellow Grey Wardens upon every visit to the noble house of Highever "but I fear I must ask something in return"

"Anything" Bryce groaned with more blood pooling from his chest and coughed from his mouth

"What is happening here pales in comparison to the evil now loose in this world. I came to your castle seeking a recruit. The darkspawn threat demands that I leave with one" As he listened to Duncan's ultimatum, Aedan had a sneaking suspicion of what or who Duncan was talking about.

"Ser Gilmore is aiding our men against Howe's forces in the main hall" Aedan stated "he is unavailable"

"Truthfully speaking you were my first choice" Duncan said honestly "you are young and if what your father tells me is true; you are a skilled warrior. The Grey Wardens would benefit highly with you among our ranks"

"I appreciate the thought, Ser Duncan" Aedan said gratefully "but my duty is to my house, I cannot run while that cunt Howe is attempting to take what doesn't belong to him and kill my family!"

"Pup, you have always made me proud" Bryce said, a smile on his face; albeit a pained one as he attempted to blot out the pain "if you die here then nobody will be able to warn Fergus of Howe's treachery"

"I...I don't..." tears were beginning to well up in Aedan's eyes, he knew his father was right but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"I will take the Teyrna and your son to Ostagar to tell Fergus and the King what happened" Duncan informed "Then your son joins the Grey Wardens"

"So long as justice comes to Howe, I agree" Bryce said, his own death may be soon but he had no intention of letting Howe win. His young son Aedan was every bit the warrior that he was back during his younger days.

"Then I offer you a place within the Grey Wardens. Fight with us" Duncan offered, Aedan knew it wasn't exactly an offer but the only way he could see himself getting out of his family's home alive; yes there was still his mother, the mage Warden recruit Daylen and the rather stoic Avvar warrior woman but still even with all of them they still wouldn't be able to fend off the bulk of Howe's forces.

Aedan sighed "this isn't exactly how I'd want to of joined under normal circumstances. But I'll do it"

"Our family always...always does our duty first" Bryce said as he felt his death getting closer and closer "the darkspawn must be defeated. You must go, for your own sake and for Fereldan"

"We must leave quickly then" Duncan stated

"Bryce, are you sure?" Eleanor said, her voice wavering as she watched her husband facing his inevitable death.

"Our son will not die of Howe's treachery. He will live, and make his mark on the world" Bryce said firmly.

"Darling, go with Duncan and his companions" Eleanor said as she looked at her son "you have a better chance to escape without me"

"Eleanor..." Bryce said, his tone un-approving "no..."

"Hush, Bryce" Eleanor said as she took her husband's face in her hand "I'll kill every bastard that comes through that door to buy them time but I won't abandon you"

Aedan looked at his mother "mother, no I cant lose you too"

"My place is with your father. To death and beyond" Eleanor said as she gazed at her son one last time.

And with that last image of his mother ans his dying father in his head, Aedan knew that he wouldn't see them ever again.

As he fled his family's home along with Duncan, his mage recruit and the Avvar woman there was only one thing that would keep him going; vengeance, vengeance on Howe and the most painful way to kill the traitorous dog.


	6. On The Road

**A/N: yeah, I know its a long wait for a short chapter. Just wanted to upload this to reassure u that the story isn't dead**

"Okay, Daylen. I think thats quite enough for you" the concerned voice of Duncan said cautiously to the young Circle mage.

The Warden Commander, Aedan Cousland, Daylen and Fridya were sitting at a bar in an inn in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. The group had fled from Castle Cousland as fast as they could; Aedan begrudgingly doing so. No doubt the treacherous Arl Howe would be sending out people to look for them and putting each of them to the sword in order to silence anyone from telling King Cailan of Howe's action's.

"But Sher Duncan, me's a mage. I can handle myshelf perfectly well, shilly" the young man tried saying reassuringly, albeit in his inebriated state would be rather hard.

Fridya couldn't help but chuckle quietly as she saw the young mage; Daylen whose speech was slurred and swayed about slightly on his bar stool. Clearly the young man hadn't been exposed to ale prior to leaving the Circle of Magi. The young man had just finished his second mug of ale and was already nearly knocked on his ass drunk. Watching the young man swaying about and slurred speech made her a little homesick and miss her fellow Nord's of Skyrim. Drunkendness was one of the staples of her people, albeit her people were able to handle more than two mug's of ale before drunkendness kicked in. _"You'll be back in Skyrim soon. You have a job to do here, would you forsake that?"_ she thought to herself.

Much like she herself, Fridya saw the young noble Aedan Cousland after downing his fourth mug of ale crack a small smile; something that he rarely did after fleeing his family home. Not that she blamed him, his entire family had been butchered by the skeever known as Arl Howe. She certainly wouldn't be in a very good mood if such a thing happened to her. Still, a drunk Daylen was a rather humorous sight to see for the two warrior's.

Duncan sighed, clearly noticing how Daylen would sooner or later injure himself even before reaching Ostagar. He needed to act to ensure Daylen didn't cause any incidents or injure himself. Granted knowing Daylen he would sooner or later insult the templar's and Chantry; a _religious_ organization which Fridya had already considered no better than the Aldmerri Dominion. She was certainly not the biggest fan of mage's; especially after Miraak who was indeed a mage was one of the very few of her foes who had come very close to ending her life and sending her to Sovengarde. She refused to die until the Aldmerri Dominion was destroyed, Miraak along with the mysterious warrior who called himself The Ebony Warrior were the only two foes of hers that almost killed her ever since she arrived in the back of a cart, hands bound by the corrupt and dying Empire. Truly, the day that Martin Septim died was the day that the true Empire died.

"Do you have any spare rooms available?" Duncan asked the barkeep. The man seemed rather thrilled to host a group of people such as themselves. The inn didn't seem to be doing too well, what with how few patron's were residing in the small tavern that nobody would look twice at to find anyone of importance, let alone a young noble and Warden Commander of Fereldan.

"Of course" the barkeep said "look around, this place isn't exactly full of enough people to be full now is it?"

"Thank the Maker" Duncan breathed relieved before dropping a coinpurse on the bar "this should be enough to cover the lot of us" he added as he dropped another coinpurse next to it "and a little thanks for keeping quiet to any of Howe's men"

A very generous deed the barkeep had done, after Duncan told the brief story of what happened at Castle Cousland it seemed the barkeep was equally disgusted at Howe, not as much as Aedan but enough for him to promise to Duncan that he would keep quiet and refuse to tell any of Howe's men who were looking for the four escapee's where they were.

Duncan nodded "come on young man" he helped Daylen up off his stool, his balance completely off as he swayed about in place. "You'll need some decent sleep before tomorrow" Duncan stated as he helped the drunk Daylen to his room. Fridya remembered how Daylen's first taste of ale treated him as similar to when she had first tasted ale for the first time, albeit her choice of mead when she first started drinking was the true Nord mead, the type that would knock any non-Nord on their back and so drunk they blacked out on their first go.

"Ah, everyone remembers their first time" Aeden joked as he along with Fridya watched as Duncan helped the drunk Daylen to his room. "He'll be feeling so wonderful come tomorrow morning"

"Poor bastard" Fridya chuckled as she remembered her first morning after getting drunk off her ass. Not a pleasant experience for anyone.

Aedan's smile quickly disappeared, the death of his family was still too fresh to become in a rather jovial nature for too long. What had happened to Fergus? That pile of horse shit Howe had butchered his brother's wife and his son...a boy. Aedan sneered how could Howe sleep at night after ordering his men to butcher a small child? If the Maker did indeed exist then there would be no way that Howe would be sitting by his side when Aedan knew he would kill the traitorous man who his father thought a friend. "I _will_ kill you Howe" Aedan promised. No matter how long it took, he would hunt down Howe like the worthless scum he was and end the Arl in the most painful way he could imagine.

"I need to get some sleep" Aedan said bluntly as he finished his last mug of ale. Aedan could see Duncan exiting one of the room's after seeing to it that the drunk Daylen was safe in bed. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Duncan" Aedan said to the bearded Warden Commander as he passed him on the way to his room. Thoughts of painful ways to kill Howe comforting him and help him to sleep.

"He's okay?" Fridya asked Duncan as the Warden Commander returned and sat upon the same stool as before. While she didn't care too much for mage's, or at least the mages of Tamriel, she did care for the ones of this new land she found herself in. In some ways the relationship between the mages and Chantry was very much like the relationship between her people and the Aldmerri Dominion; one believing they are better than the other and able to get away with abusing them. Well no more, no more getting away for anything for the Thalmor in Skyrim. It was open season on the Thalmor in Skyrim, and now with no Empire to protect them it was time for the son's and daughter's of Skyrim to rid Skyrim of those knife-ear's.

"For tonight" Duncan answered "not so sure how he'll be tomorrow morning mind you" Both of them knew why, all of them would have to make it to Ostagar by tomorrow double time, lest Howe is able to spin his web of lies prior to the four of them meeting this King Cailan that Fridya had learned of.

The Warden Commander and Dragonborn talked, Duncan about his past and Fridya was forced to come up with somewhat convincing lies about herself. She was a woman from another region of...was she even on Nirn anymore? A country that locks up mages just for being mage's, Talos only knows what they would do with a woman claiming to be from another land. Best she play it safe than sorry.

Thankfully it didn't last long as both Duncan and Fridya needed to rest before tomorrow.


End file.
